Ever The Same
by Madaboutagirl
Summary: S12 AU, Arizona, upset by Callie dating Penny, decides to leave Seattle for a few months and heads to DC to see Teddy and help train new surgeons at MedComm. But her fresh start is spoiled when Lauren turns up as one of the instructors. It's further complicated when she gets drunk and has sex with Amelia... Characters belong to Shonda and ABC... NOT CALZONA!
1. Chapter 1

"Just think about it, that's all I'm saying," Teddy says before she hangs up the phone. Arizona has been calling a lot since Callie started dating Penny and she can't stand to hear her friend so broken and indecisive. Which is why Teddy just told her about a six month consultant position with MedComm, they're bringing in a new class of Army surgeons for training, so they're hiring consultants from a variety of specialities to come in and work with the new surgeons. The usual Neonatal specialist isn't available, so Teddy has recommended Arizona off er a fetal surgical rotation. And since her parents still live outside of DC, she'd be able to spend time with them and get away from Seattle for a bit.

* * *

"April, it would just be six months, am I crazy to consider it? Would Callie even agree to let Sofia come out to visit?" Arizona is pacing in her office as she outlines what Teddy has suggested.

"Arizona, it's a great idea. It is only six months, but it's six months away from your life here. Trust me, you'll gain a new perspective, I think it's just what you need." April says excitedly.

"It is good timing, the new Neonatal attending is doing great and anything she can't handle, Addison can or I could come back. I haven't talked to my parents yet, but I know they'll be all for it. Bailey won't be happy with me, but at least I'll be back in July, when the next class of interns start." Arizona says talking herself into it. "Okay, I'm going to do it. I'll call Teddy."

* * *

"You're what?" Callie blurts out when Arizona breaks the news to her.

"I'll be gone for six months, but I'll just be in DC. I leave right after New Year's," Arizona explains.

You're just going to walk away from Seattle for six months?" Callie asks. "What about Sofia?"

"Well, I was hoping that she could come visit and stay with my parents for a week or so every other month, we can work that out, right?" Arizona questions.

"Yeah, okay. Of course we can work this out, but why are you doing this?" Callie asks softly. "Is it because of this whole thing with Penny?"

"Yes Calliope, I'm so freaked out about you dating a resident that I'm going to run away to DC for six months and completely turn my life upside down," Arizona replies sarcastically.

"Funny, but it does have something to do with it, doesn't it?" she asks.

"Look I just need a break and this is unique opportunity to train military surgeons and you know how important that is to me," Arizona points out.

"Okay, I get it, but still I wish that you wouldn't go. What are you going to do with your condo?" Callie asks.

"Amelia is going to stay there and take care of it, this way I don't have to put anything in storage and I'll still have a place to stay when I come back. April and Jackson have offered to help with Sofia while I'm gone and of course Amelia can help too." Arizona reminds her.

"Have you told Bailey yet?" Callie asks.

"I'm heading there now to submit my leave of absence," Arizona says standing up to leave.

"Let's talk again before you leave, okay?" Callie asks.

"Of course, I'm waiting for Teddy to send me the training schedule and then we can work out Sofia's visits." Arizona replies, "Thanks Callie, I knew that you'd understand."

"Well I don't really understand, but it's better than you going to Africa for six months," she quips.

* * *

"Six months? You're going to DC for six months and you're leaving in two weeks?" Bailey is stunned when Arizona hands her the paperwork. "We hired the neonatal specialist to help you and now you're leaving, I'm just trying to understand this Dr Robbins," she replies angrily.

"Miranda, the neonatal specialist is excellent and anything that she can't handle, Addison can. I've already spoken with her and she's agreed to a six month contract, and Jackson's aware of this already, I think when you look at my request, you'll see that I've thought of almost every scenario and I have a contingency plan outlined for each," Arizona say gesturing at the document in front of Miranda.

"You're not going to pull a Kepner on me and extend this and be gone for a year, are you?" Bailey asks sharply.

"No, it's a training contract for six months, beginning in January and ending in June. Miranda, I'll be back in June and I'll be ready for the new interns, I will have spent six months training new surgeons, I'll be at the top of my game and we should probably consider offering that fetal surgical fellowship in the Fall," Arizona adds to help Miranda settle down.

"Tell your parents hello from me and take care of yourself. Oh and tell Altman, she owes me," Bailey replies. Then muttering to herself, she adds, "she owes me big time, taking my only Fetal Surgeon for six months…"

Arizona smiles as she closes the door behind her and leans heavily on the wall beside it. Relieved that that's over, she closes her eyes a minute.

"Arizona?" Meredith asks concerned. "Are you alright?"

"Uh, yes. I'm fine, I just had a meeting with Bailey and just needed a minute," she explains.

"Is it true? You're taking a leave of absence?" Meredith asks, moving in close to her so no one will hear them talk.

"How did you hear about that already? I've only just told Callie and Bailey," Arizona asks.

"I overheard Jackson and April talking, he's not a fan of us going to work with the military, you know," she points out.

"Yeah, but this isn't the same as what April and Owen did. I'm just going to be in DC teaching new surgeons at Walter Reed for MedComm, I'll be staying at my parents house." She explains.

"Oh, but MedComm, that's where Teddy is, did she have something to do with this?" Meredith asks.

"Yes, they just found out that their Neonatal instructor won't be able to teach this next group, so she asked me to fill in and I was approved this morning, I leave in two weeks." Arizona replies.

"Well, I can certainly understand wanting to get away from Seattle, especially right now," Meredith says leaning back against the wall.

"You know this has nothing to do with that business with Callie and Penny, please don't let people think that I'm running from that situation." Arizona says worriedly, "This opportunity just landed in my lap, I didn't seek it out," she explains.

"Of course, no one will think that. Everyone knows that you and Teddy were close, so if she asked you to help, you'd help. But I have to admit, I'm jealous that you get to leave and I have to stay here and deal with this crap." Meredith says pushing off from the wall, "Speaking of that, I should go check on Blake and make sure she hasn't killed anyone in recovery."

* * *

"It's all set, I fly out on Friday, spend the weekend with my folks and then report to MedComm on Monday, I'll meet the other surgeons and we'll get setup and then begin teaching the new surgeons." Arizona explains to Amelia over dinner.

"Wow, maybe I should come out for a visit and meet Teddy, I could use a change of pace and six months away from here sounds like heaven right now." Amelia exclaims.

"Ha, Bailey would kill Teddy if another one of us signed onto this program. Have you thought any more about that private practice offer?" Arizona asks.

"I have the attorney going over the offer, It means that I would have to give up being the department head, which right now seems like a great idea." She replies sarcastically.

* * *

"Sofia, you'll be a good girl for Mami and I'll call you tomorrow from Grandma and Grandpa's house, okay?" Arizona is trying not to cry, but leaving Sofia is harder than she imagined.

"Arizona, it's okay. She'll be fine and you'll see her in a few weeks." Callie says as she heads for the door with Sofia by the hand. Callie suggested that she come by and get Sofia tonight, she figured that it would be easier on Arizona this way.

As soon as the door closes, Arizona slumps to the floor crying, Amelia comes out of her room. "Hey, you'll see her soon," the brunette says wrapping her arms around her.

"I know, I just miss her already," she says sadly.

"I'll bring her out at the end of the month, just like we planned. Then I'll drive up to my Mom's and get a visit in. It's just three weeks, you'll see her in three weeks." Amelia says softly reminding her.

* * *

"I'll drop you off. You don't have a parking pass yet and trust me visitor parking there is bad." Daniel informs his daughter when they are discussing how she will get back and forth from the hospital the next day.

"Well, that will work, then I'll just need to figure out if I want to stay in the guest housing or with Teddy, I don't think I'm going to want to drive in from here everyday," Arizona points out.

"Well, your father made that drive for the last five years before he retired, it's not that bad," Barbara exclaims.

"Barb, it's a horrible drive. I hated every minute of it. Arizona, you see what your options are and we're here if you need us. Now when is Sofia coming?" Daniel asks, quickly changing the topic.

"Dad, I think you're more excited to have her visit than you are to have me here?" Arizona teases him.

"We haven't seen her in almost a year, Arizona," he reminds her.

"I know and I'm sorry. I should have brought her out, but I'm not real excited about flying and I'm terrified of flying with her." Arizona admits.

"Honey, why didn't you say that. We could have come out to visit you," Barbara says putting an arm around her daughter.

* * *

"Arizona! It's so good to see you." Teddy exclaims when Arizona walks into her office the next morning. "This is going to be amazing three of my friends are here to train surgeons with me. And I've arranged for the three of you to share a place not far from here, Tricia has a car, she's down from Hopkins, but Bos is from Houston so she doesn't have a car either, but don't worry, we can get you guys back and forth. Oh sit, the others on their way. They came in yesterday and got settled into the condo," Teddy explains.

"How many surgeons are here to train?" Arizona asks.

"You know, I'm not sure. But most of them are like you, some have served in the Peace Corps or in Doctors Without Borders, a few are ex-military. But don't worry, there's only a few of you who are totally new to this." Teddy replies nervously watching the door.

"Teddy, please tell me that we have time for coffee before we start and not Army coffee..."

Arizona smiles when she hears that comment, until she realizes that she knows that voice, turning around slowly, her mouth drops open. Teddy doesn't notice the reaction because she's going over to greet them, but the Tricia notices how the change that takes over the blonde's face.

"There's a 'real' coffee cart on the way to the conference room, don't worry Boswell." Teddy says going over to greet her. "Now I want you to meet Arizona Robbins, Arizona, Lauren Boswell. Tricia Weller, Arizona Robbins."


	2. Chapter 2

_**A/N: for those of you still with me, I'm glad that you enjoyed the first chapter bomb drop!**_

* * *

Arizona stands up and walks over to the two women and greets Tricia, then turns to Lauren, "It's, uh, been a long time Lauren, how have you been?" She says carefully extracting her hand from the other woman's grasp.

"Arizona," she replies carefully, then turning to Teddy, she adds, "Why didn't you tell me that your friend was Arizona Robbins from Seattle?"

"Uh, I didn't know it would make a difference. You two know each other?" Teddy asks confused.

"Uh, yes. I was in Seattle a few years ago on a consult. Dr Robbins and I operated together along with, who was the guy with the beautiful eyes and soft voice, the plastics guy, Jackson" Lauren says.

"Jackson Avery," Arizona and Teddy say together.

"Oh he is so pretty, I just miss looking at him." Teddy says reminiscing.

"He must be pretty for Boswell to notice him," Tricia replies.

"Shut it Weller, don't make me bring up Dr Petersgaard from Denmark," Lauren shoots back.

"Okay, ladies. Let's get moving or we'll be late and Robbins must be properly caffeinated or we'll all regret it." Teddy says laughing and leading them out of the office.

Lauren falls back to walk with Arizona, "I swear that I didn't even know that Teddy knew you," she says glancing nervously at the blonde.

"I see, well, Teddy and I worked together in Seattle," Arizona replies as they step into the elevator.

"Arizona, Tricia is at Hopkins, she's an ortho." Teddy then turns to Tricia, "Her ex is Callie Torres."

"Wow, I'm a big fan of her work. The cartilage project was amazing and now she's working with Wounded Warriors, Teddy, you need to get her down here for this. She could really help them to understand how important it is to do a proper amputation." Tricia exclaims.

Teddy and Lauren wince and glance at Arizona uncomfortably. But Arizona doesn't react.

"I'll mention it to her, I'm sure that she could put something together to help," Arizona replies to Tricia and almost jumps when Teddy squeezes her hand.

Arizona and Lauren stop for coffee and Teddy and Tricia go ahead and start talking with the other instructors outside of the conference area.

"You still take cream and way too much sugar, right?" Lauren says handing her a cup.

"Yes, thank you," Arizona says taking the coffee. She's got to talk to Teddy, there's no way she can stay in a condo with Lauren Boswell for the next six months. It's difficult enough making small talk with her.

"Look, I know that you're probably not looking forward to being around me for the next six months, but I hope that we can talk soon and put it behind us." She says hopefully.

Arizona takes a deep breath and looks away from her a moment. "Lauren, I appreciate that, but this is not something that I want or need to discuss with you," she says and walks over to join Teddy.

Lauren takes a sip of her coffee and watches Arizona, this is going to be hell, she thinks to herself. And how do I explain this to Teddy.

A few minutes later, Teddy comes over to Lauren, "Are you going to tell me what's going on with you and Robbins?" She asks.

"Do you remember that night we were drinking and we talked about our biggest regrets?" Lauren asks.

"No!" Teddy exclaims covering her mouth, "Arizona? My Arizona? Damn it, Lauren. You broke up my aspirational couple!" Teddy says turning away from her.

"I'm not proud of that you know," Lauren reminds her. "But maybe we're here together for a reason, and we can finally talk about it."

"You should probably leave her alone and not push it. She's not in a good place. I talked her into coming out here to get away from all that and now you're here, reminding her of it. Damn it." Teddy says again.

* * *

"Arizona, I'm so sorry. I had no idea about you and Lauren, obviously. And she feels terrible about surprising you. She wants you to move into the condo, she's got another friend that she can stay with," Teddy explains.

"That's not necessary, I'll just stay at my parents place, it's not a big deal," she replies.

Teddy looks at her and shakes her head, "No you hate driving and that is at least an hour commute, look give me a few days and I'll figure this out. I know everyone here," she says looking around.

"Teddy, don't. The last thing I need is for everyone here to know that I had an affair with Lauren Boswell." Arizona whispers.

"Okay, okay, I won't say anything. But we're having dinner tomorrow night, you'll join us?" Teddy asks.

"Uh, I just need some time to wrap my head around this, okay?" Arizona replies. "And please tell Lauren to stay at the condo, she doesn't need to move on my account."

Driving back to her parents house that night, Arizona's mind is reeling. Lauren Boswell was the last person that she expected to see today. Knowing that it is not going to be possible to avoid her for the next six months, Arizona considers what she wants to say and what Lauren may want to say to her.

Parking the rental car on the street in front of her parents house, she sighs. So much for getting a fresh start for 2016, she thinks grabbing her bag out of the car.

* * *

"What's going on with you and Robbins?" Tricia asks Lauren when they return to the condo that night.

"Long story and we haven't seen each other since," Lauren says carefully, heading into her room.

"Wait, you're seriously not going to tell me?" Tricia asks following her. "You told me about the one from last conference, what's different about her?"

"Trish, I'm not talking about it," Lauren replies.

"You slept with her and didn't call?" Tricia remarks.

"Look, it's complicated and we're not talking about it," Lauren says pushing her out of the room and closing the door.

Laying on the bed, Lauren looks up at the ceiling fan and sighs. All the times that she imagined seeing the blonde again and now she's right here in DC for the next six months. How can she possibly explain her behaviour in Seattle? Will she even care?

* * *

"Honey, how was your first day?" Barbara asks standing at the door of the guest room.

Arizona looks up from her laptop, "It was fine Mom," she replies.

"Do you need me to wake you up in the morning?" Barbara asks.

"Mom, that's not necessary, I've been getting myself up for a few years now," Arizona says smiling at her.

"I know, I know, it's just old habits," she explains.

"Good night Mom, I'll see you in the morning," Arizona replies.

Barbara says good night and closes the door behind her.

* * *

Arizona closes the laptop, she'd been reading the same article for over half an hour, but really she was just thinking about Lauren Boswell. Its been over three years and she honestly hadn't thought of her in a long time. Taking a deep breath, she thinks about everything that happened between them. Arizona discussed this in therapy and decided exactly what she'd say to her if she ever saw her again. But when she saw her today, she realized that she'd never say those words to her. The Lauren that she remembered and the Lauren that she met today are not the same people, she sighs again. Then puts the laptop away and goes into the bathroom to get ready for bed.

* * *

"Good Morning, how was the drive in today?" Teddy asks meeting Arizona for coffee outside the conference room the next morning.

"It was fine," she says taking a sip of her coffee.

"Are you going to have dinner with us tonight?" Teddy asks.

"No," Arizona replies.

"Well, that's good because Lauren and Trish have cancelled." Teddy replies.

"Hey good morning Teddy, Arizona," Tricia says walking up to them.

"Good morning Tricia, where's Lauren?" Teddy asks looking around for her.

"I don't know, she left before me," Tricia replies. "I thought that she'd be here."

"I better call her," Teddy says stepping away from them.

"Hey, who's Teddy calling?" Lauren asks walking up to them sipping a cup of coffee.

Arizona nods to her and walks over to Teddy and points to Lauren and then walks into the conference room to take her seat.

"Hey, where did you go this morning?" Tricia asks Lauren.

"I am avoiding you and your questions," Lauren replies sarcastically and walks away.

"Okay, so this is going great," Teddy remarks sarcastically.

* * *

"Wait are you saying that everyone here, volunteers with some sort of medical relief organization?" Arizona asks Teddy at lunch.

"Yep," Teddy replies.

"Oh, so how did I get in?" She asks.

"Arizona, you won a Carter-Madison grant right out of med school and built a clinic that basically is a medical relief organization," Teddy reminds her.

"Oh right," she says thoughtfully. "Teddy, sometimes I forget that I had this whole other life, you know before the plane crash," Arizona says softly.

Teddy smiles tightly and reaches across the table, "I'm sorry, I wish I'd have been there for you Arizona. I didn't even find out about the plane crash until a year later."

"I know, Teddy and it was probably for the best. I wasn't myself for a really long time," she replies.

"Hey, we'll get done early today. Why don't we go out for drink or a walk or something?" Teddy asks.

"That sounds great actually, all this sitting is already getting to me." Arizona admits.

* * *

"Um, hey," Lauren says when she enters the bathroom and spots the blonde at the sink.

"I was just heading back in," Arizona replies moving to slip past her to the door.

Lauren places a hand on her arm, "Arizona".

The blonde looks down at her hand, then back up at her face and shakes her head then walks out the door.

"She'll be here six months, you should pace yourself." Tricia remarks after catching a glimpse of the exchange when she opened her stall door.


	3. Chapter 3

Lauren sits directly behind Arizona and Teddy in the conference room. Arizona can feel her energy and it makes her anxious. Teddy picks up on it and looks at her questioningly. She shakes her head and continues trying to focus on the presentation.

"What are you going to do about this thing with Lauren?" Teddy asks Arizona. They are sitting on a bench drinking coffee, it's a mild winter day for the east coast.

"I'll talk to her soon," Arizona replies taking a sip of her coffee.

"She regrets it you know," Teddy says watching her.

"She talked to you about it?" Arizona asks conflicted between annoyed and surprised.

"We had just met and we went out drinking, we came back to my place and we were having one of those horrible late night honest conversations that you only have after you've been drinking. I started it, talking about regrets," Teddy replies, "she told me everything but she didn't tell me that it was you or even Seattle."

"Hmm," Arizona says looking off into the distance.

"Arizona, I can't even imagine a scenario in which you cheat on Callie," Teddy replies softly.

"Me either, but it happened and I can't change it," she says sadly.

* * *

"Teddy, I should get going," Arizona says as they walk back from the restaurant.

"You could just stay at my place, we're in the skills lab tomorrow, so you can just wear scrubs." Teddy points out.

"It would be nice not to drive," she admits, "Let me call and my parents know."

"Okay, now let's have a drink and relax," Teddy says when they enter her place. "Bathroom is down the hall, there's a futon in my office/guest room and I'll get you something to change into."

"Okay, thanks." Arizona replies sitting down on the couch.

A few minutes later Teddy returns and hands Arizona some clothes. "Here these should be comfortable for you, do you want a beer or a drink?"

"A drink would be great, scotch neat if you have it." She replies.

"I do, and I think that you'll like this one." Teddy replies getting down glasses.

* * *

"Is this Balvenie?" Arizona asks taking a sip.

"Yeah, what gave it away?" Teddy asks.

"It's the sherry oak on the finish, it's slightly sweet," Arizona replies, savoring another taste of the scotch.

"You're really good at this," Teddy replies.

"Well, all Dad drank was scotch, so Tim and I snuck around and tried them all," she says laughing.

"My parents didn't drink, there was nothing for me to sneak," she replies laughing.

"Teddy?" Arizona asks looking over at her, "How are you doing?"

"Ah, you know, no one has asked me that in a long time. I mean, no one who knows," she says rambling nervously.

Arizona reaches over and squeezes her knee.

"I love my job and I've been seeing someone, Thomas is on a mission right now, but you'll meet him when he gets back in March, I promise." She says smiling. "It just takes time, you know."

"Oh I know all about time, Teddy. It's been three years. And it's not easy watching Callie date. Thank you for suggesting this contract, even despite Lauren, it is good to get out of Seattle and clear my head." Arizona admits.

"Once you talk with Bos and put that behind you, I really hope that you'll begin to relax and enjoy being here."

Her reply is interrupted by a soft knock at the door. Teddy gets up and looks out, then flings the door open.

"You're back from Atlanta! Come in I want you to meet someone!"

The woman who enters is about Teddy's height and build, but she has light green eyes and long, light reddish brown hair.

"Arizona Robbins meet Julie Fuller, Julie works at NIH, Arizona is Fetal Surgeon in Seattle, who is here for six months to teach a crash course in Fetal medicine at Walter Reed." Teddy explains introducing them to each other.

"Lovely to meet you Arizona," Julie says with a slight southern accent. "Teddy, I don't want to interrupt, I just heard your voice and wanted to ask if any of your people were looking for a sublet?"

"A sublet? You are going somewhere?" Teddy asks.

"No, but I just ran into James and he took a temporary assignment in San Antonio, he wants to sublet until July. I told him to give you the details, he'll probably talk to you about it tomorrow, he was heading out to dinner," she explains.

"Oh, well Arizona is looking for a sublet, she's staying with her folks in Arlington," Teddy replies pouring Julie a glass of scotch and topping of both of their glasses. "You do have time for a drink?" She asks handing one to her.

"Have you ever known me not to have time for a drink?" Julie replies winking at Arizona and coming around to sit on the other end of the couch. "Now Arizona, Fetal Medicine is a relatively new specialty, how long have you been in it?"

"Just a few years, I trained under Nicole Herman. I am also a Pediatric Surgeon," Arizona explains.

"She's so modest, she is one of the top Pediatric Surgeons in the nation, she won the Carter Madison grant right out of Med school and she is currently Chief of Maternal and Children's Medicine, a department that didn't even exist until she created it and raised the money to fund it." Teddy gushes.

Looking slightly embarrassed, Arizona takes a sip of the scotch, "Teddy will give you a copy of my CV tomorrow," she jokes.

"Okay, so Julie here, she's a brilliant Neurologist at NIH and she was just in Atlanta presenting at the CDC, her team has been analyzing the new microscope app created for the iPhone, it's already being used to Africa to help identify people infected with the Loa Loa." Teddy says, "Julie what is your team hoping to use it for again?"

"Many, many things and Arizona has practiced medicine in Africa, so I'm sure she can just imagine how useful it is." Julie replies turning her attention back to the blonde.

"Arizona, it's been a pleasure meeting you. This is quite the convenient place to stay in Bethesada, I hope you consider letting James' place." Julie says standing up with her glass, "Teddy, I'll drop this by tomorrow. I need to finish unpacking."

Arizona stands up too, "Julie, I'm sure that I'll see you soon and maybe we could have dinner, I'd love to hear more about what you're working on and my clinic in Africa has been using that microscope app for a few months now."

"Well, we should do lunch then, that's not dinner talk." She says, reaching out to shake the blonde's hand, but really just holding it for a moment.

"The NIH is only a few blocks away from Walter Reed," Teddy points out as she wraps an arm around the other woman and walks her to the door.

"You should totally go out with her, she's great and single, and a lesbian." Teddy gushes after shutting the door.

* * *

"Can we have dinner together tomorrow?" Arizona asks Lauren the next afternoon after lunch.

"Uh, yeah." Lauren replies stunned that the blonde is talking to her and asking her out.

"We're talking, that's all." Arizona adds.

"Okay," Lauren replies.

"See I told you that she'd come around," Tricia remarks overhearing the exchange.

"I'm fairly certain that's not her coming around," Lauren says shaking her head.

"Well if she was just going to tell you to fuck off, she wouldn't have invited you for dinner." Tricia points out. "You're going to tell her everything, right?"

"I don't know, I think I should just listen to what she has to say first. She may not want to know my side of it," Lauren counters.

"She's taking a sublet in Teddy's building, I overheard them talking." Tricia replies.

"Then we have an extra room, you should call your wife and have her visit this weekend," Lauren suggests, "Bring Sammy and I'll babysit her while you guys go out."

"Your first weekend here and you want to babysit my kid?" Tricia asks.

* * *

"Okay, it's all set. James says that you can move into his guest room this weekend and he leaves the middle of next week for Texas. This is going to be great," Teddy says excitedly. "Now about Julie, have you called her for lunch yet?"

"No, I haven't. But I'm having dinner with Lauren tomorrow night to talk," Arizona replies.

"Dinner? That implies a lengthy conversation, where are you taking her?" Teddy asks.

"I thought the Woodmont would be quiet on a Thursday night," Arizona remarks.

"Uh, yeah that should be perfect." Teddy says, "so you're going to hear her side of it?"

"Dinner will give us both a chance to talk, then we'll be done with it." Arizona points out.

"Are you sure that there's nothing between you two? I've been watching you and each of you steals glances when the other isn't looking." Teddy replies.

"Teddy, sleeping with her destroyed my relationship with Callie and that's something that I'll live with the rest of my life. Having anything more than a professional relationship with her is out of the question." Arizona replies firmly.

* * *

 _ **A/N: consider Julie to be played by Nikki Deloach, the woman firefighter from S12:8, since this isn't canon fo S12 that didn't happen and I thought she and JCap had some chemistry.**_


	4. Chapter 4

Lauren looks over at the blonde and smiles tightly. They've been making polite conversation and she feels like she's waiting for a bomb to go off. Nervously, she takes another sip of her wine.

Clearing her throat and taking a sip of water, Arizona decides to begin. "It was a mistake that I never thought that I would make, ever. Cheating on someone, it's inexcusable and it's not who I am."

"I agree." Lauren replies.

"Wait, what?" Arizona says confused that she would just agree with her.

"I agree, pursuing someone who was in a relationship, that's not anything that I thought I would do and it is inexcusable." Lauren explains.

Arizona takes a moment to digest that unexpected statement, so Lauren continues.

"You don't know me, Arizona. I'm not this person of questionable integrity that goes around sleeping with whomever I want leaving destruction in my wake." Lauren asserts, "And I'm sure that you don't care to know how I got to that point or why, but would you please just accept that that's not who I am as a person?"

"Okay," Arizona says slowly, "I'm not a person who cheats, so I guess that's fair," she adds.

"We're more than two people who made a mistake three years ago, we deserve to be more than that to each other. I'm not saying that we should be friends, but we can at least be colleagues for the next six months, okay?" Lauren replies.

"I need to tell you that..." Arizona begins and Lauren cuts her off.

"Arizona, we don't need to trade horror stories to prove to each other that we were acting out of character. Can't we just both agree that those people who made that mistake don't exist any more and just move on?" Lauren asks. "We are sitting here in a great restaurant with live jazz and about to enjoy some amazing food, let's just do that."

Arizona sits back in her chair and takes another sip of wine. It would be nice to stop talking about this and does it really serve any purpose? she asks herself. "Okay," she replies.

"Okay," Lauren repeats. "So you're moving into Teddy's building?" she asks.

"I am, this weekend in fact." Arizona replies.

"It's a great location. I had a sublet in that building my first time here. I was right next door to Teddy," she adds.

"Julie? Did you sublet Julie's place?" Arizona asks.

"Ah, you've met her." Lauren says.

"I did the other night, she seems nice." Arizona says watching Lauren's face carefully. "Did you go out with her?"

"Me? Nah, I don't think I'm her type. But we did go out together a few times. She's fun." Lauren offers. "Uh, are you going to go out with her?"

"We're having lunch next week." Arizona replies. "But it's not a date, I haven't dated in years, I'm not sure that I even remember how."

"Ha! That's hard to believe." Lauren teases. "But I can relate. I have managed to not date for several years now myself," she confesses, "I think I'm terminally single."

"Terminally single isn't a thing," Arizona replies, "And I find that difficult to believe."

"Says someone who's not dated in what two, three years herself?" Lauren points out.

"I been too busy to meet anyone and dating takes so much energy." Arizona laments.

"Yeah, I've been splitting my time between South America and Houston, so it's been relatively easy to not date anyone." Lauren says commiserating with her.

"Where are you working in South America?" Arizona asks, a little amazed at how easy they transitioned from awkward dinner companions to colleagues.

"I volunteer at a clinic in Bolivia, they have a high rate of children born with cleft palate, we believe that it's part of the Mongolian DNA and geneticists are mapping the Mongolian genome now." Lauren replies.

"Interesting, so you go there, what every other year for how long? Three months at a time?" Arizona asks.

"Yes, I've been doing it for three years now, alternating it with this surgical training program. I've taught over 30 Army surgeons how to correct cleft palate, this year I'll teach 12 more." She adds.

"That's fantastic Lauren, so you've been pleased with the program and the surgeons that you've trained?" Arizona asks.

"You will be too. The surgeons selected for this program are all highly motivated to make a difference in the world community, they are quite impressive. I think Teddy said that you have five in your program, which is really good, considering it's the first time they've offered a fetal surgical program. Previously, they only offered a neonatal program." Lauren points out.

"I've picked three procedures to teach, hopefully we can get a case or two for each procedure, though I have surgical videos for each, which is more than I had to learn by." Arizona explains.

"I've never even seen a fetal surgery, but I've seen surgical videos. You actually have handled an unborn baby, that's so amazing," Lauren says her voice filled with admiration.

"It is an amazing privilege," Arizona says softly.

* * *

"How was your date?" Barbara asks when Arizona comes home that night.

"It wasn't a date, Mom. It was dinner with a colleague," Arizona hasn't told her parents anything about what's going on.

"Oh, but this isn't anyone that you'd consider dating?" Barbara asks.

"Not really, she lives in Houston and she travels a lot with Doctors Without Borders," Arizona explains.

"We worry about you honey, you haven't dated since you and Callie broke up and you used to always enjoy dating." Barbara reminds her.

"Mom, being with Callie made me realize that there's more to life than dating. I want someone to share my life with, someone who can appreciate everything that I've accomplished and has accomplishments of her own to share with me." Arizona says trying to explain. "But not long distance, relationships are hard enough without having to travel on top of it."

* * *

"So how was dinner last night?" Teddy asks the next morning during their break.

"It was good, everything should be a little easier from now on." Arizona replies.

"Hmm, what does that mean exactly?" Teddy asks.

"It means that there will be less tension between us," she replies.

"Okay," Teddy says still wondering if they'll be more to this story later.

"Teddy, that's all. I dropped her off after dinner and went home to my parent's house, that's all that happened." Arizona shakes her head and laughs at her friend.

"Okay, so we're still on for lunch tomorrow?" Teddy asks.

"Yeah, I'll be in around 11 and then lunch. Have you been to this place? James says that it has live music all day Saturday," Arizona asks.

"Oh yeah, it's great but you have to go when you have a free Saturday, because it's so easy to end up spending the whole day there, ask Julie about it. She loves to go there, it's a fun crowd." Teddy explains.

"Sounds great to me. After spending the week in that conference room and skills lab, no offense," Arizona teases.

"None taken. It's really the worst part of the whole thing. Now we'll spend next week setting up our classrooms and the students will be here the week after. Then we have a four day weekend with MLK Day before we start the push. Is Sofia still coming to visit that weekend?" Teddy asks.

"Yes, I'll keep her with me that weekend, then take her to my parent's for the week." Arizona replies.

* * *

"Arizona!" James says opening the door. "Girl you look fierce, I can't wait to walk into Harlings with you, the lesbians are going to go cray-cray over you," He teases.

"Oh you didn't say there'd be lesbians," Arizona playfully puts her hand on her hip as if she's reconsidering.

"Don't even play, I see that you are dressed for maximum attention," he says eyeing her cleavage.

"Oh you did not just do that, what is it about gay men and cleavage?" Arizona asks.

"We're still men and we all appreciate the mammary glands," he replies sarcastically.

Arizona takes her suitcases into the guest room and follows, "You only have two suitcases for six months?" He asks.

"I have a friend coming out in a few weeks, she's bringing another one," Arizona explains.

"Can I ask why you have crutches?" he asks.

"Uh, oh, I have a prosthetic leg," she replies, "I forget that people outside of Seattle don't know about the plane crash," she explains.

"You were in a plane crash" He asks horrified.

"It was a small plane that was flying a group of surgeons to Idaho to do a transplant, it happened a few years ago. But it was big news in Seattle, we were, um, missing for a few days." She says trying not to say too much.

"Honey, I would never have guessed that any of that happened to you, good on you for putting that shit behind you," he replies reaching out to squeeze her arm. Then he adds over his shoulder, "Now Teddy will be here soon and I think she's bringing Julie."

"Awesome, I'll be ready when they get here, I just want to hang up a few things." She calls out the door.

* * *

"First things first, darling, bring us a round of Lemon Drops, what's lunch without a little kickoff shot," he says looking around the table to make sure everyone is up for it.

"I've cleared my day James, bring it!" Teddy replies laughing.

"Same here," Julie says laughing and turning to Arizona to smile at her.

"Oh I'm in, I may be asleep in the corner in a few hours, but let's do this!" Arizona replies taking a big sip of her water.

"Smart girl, hydration is key to drinking all day." Teddy says picking up her water glass and taking a big drink.

* * *

"Oh my god, she's so talented, I could listen to her all day. That cover of 'Ghost' was amazing." Teddy exclaims a few hours later when they've switched to pitchers of beers from pitchers of Mimosas and they're all feeling it now.

Arizona's phone rings and she steps outside to answer it, "Hey Shepherd! What's going on?" She says slurring a bit.

"Oh my, it's barely after noon there and you've been drinking? That's awesome Robbins, sorry to interrupt your fun, but I can't get your smart TV to work, I seem to have knocked it off line or something." She admits.

"Call Alex, I have no idea. He set it up. Callie can figure it out though, she's talked me through fixing it twice already." Arizona replies, "So how is everything going there?"

"No, go back to your afternoon, news from Seattle can wait. Call me tomorrow." Amelia says hanging up on her.

"Is everything alright?" Teddy asks when she returns to the table.

"Oh yeah, my friend who's staying at my place had a question about the TV," she replies.

"Doesn't she know you well enough to know that you do good to turn it on?" Teddy teases.

"Uh, I'll have you know that I can turn it on and switch it to internet to watch Netflix," Arizona replies proudly.

"Impressive, here have another beer," Teddy says refilling her glass.

* * *

"Wait, shouldn't we eat first?" Arizona asks as they all put their coats on to walk back to their building.

"No, we have to go home and order pizza. Two meals at the same place is a bad mistake," Teddy says shaking her head.

"Seriously, last time we did that we were here until midnight," Julie confesses.

"But it's only 5:30", Arizona points out confused.

"Trust us, we have to leave before it gets dark, it's not day drinking after dark," James teases.

"I don't think I've drank like this since college," Arizona replies.

"Not true, remember when you came back from Africa and we went to lunch at Joe's and decided to have beers with lunch, next thing you know we were drinking tequila shots and I had to call Yang to come and take us to my place? Oh god that was a hideous hangover, beer, tequila and scotch. We wasted really good scotch that night," Teddy laments.

Arizona laughs, "Sadly we did waste good scotch that night! Teddy, I miss you," she says leaning on the couch to wrap an arm around her.

"I missed you too," Teddy says resting her head on the blonde's shoulder.

A knock on the door and Julie goes to get it, it's the pizza.

"Oh my god, why does this pizza taste so amazing?" Teddy asks.

"It's pretty good, but remember that hole in the wall pizza place in downtown Seattle that we found by accident?" Arizona reminds her.

"It was New York pizza in Seattle, Julie, honest to God, New York pizza!" Teddy explains.

"Well, remember that I'm from the South, so my pizza game is pretty weak," Julie explains.

"Does that mean you haven't had Chicago pizza either?" Arizona asks.

"Not that I know of," Julie replies.

"Arizona, we have mostly gourmet pizza places here," Teddy replies before she can ask.

"Oh, those are good too," Arizona replies taking another slice. "I'm going to need to go swimming tomorrow to work this off. Teddy, come with me?"

"I love to swim, I'll go with you," Julie offers.

Arizona looks at Teddy nervously, she doesn't know if Julie knows about her accident.

"Yes," Julie says to Arizona, "she told me about your accident."

"Sorry, I don't mean to weird about it. It's just, I'm not used to be around people who don't know," Arizona explains.


	5. Chapter 5

"Here's another one of Sammy and the neighbor's puppy, how cute is that?" Lauren is showing Teddy pictures from her weekend babysitting Tricia's daughter. "So how was your weekend? " she asks.

"Good, long lunch on Saturday and long work out on Sunday to pay for it," Teddy replies laughing.

"Did Tricia not come in with you?" Teddy asks looking around the lab.

"She's here somewhere," Lauren replies, her gaze stops abruptly when Arizona walks in talking with a tall dark-haired woman.

"Did I forget to mention that Shelly was coming this week?" Teddy asks glancing over to see the reason for the look on Lauren's face.

"Jeez Teddy, you should've warned Arizona before she got sucked into Shelly's vortex of crazy." Lauren nods towards the door.

"Oh no!" Teddy exclaims covering her mouth. "How did she latch onto Arizona already? Lauren do something!"

"Teddy, you expect me to throw myself in front of that crazy train?" Lauren asks incredulously.

"Yes and I swear that I'll help you get away. Please, please go save Arizona." Teddy begs.

Lauren glares at Teddy and crosses the room towards the two women.

"Hey Shelly, it's so great to see you again," Lauren says shaking her hand slowly to distract her, while Teddy sneaks in to grab Arizona.

"Teddy, did you see that? That was plain rude, I was having an interesting conversation and...," Arizona complains.

"No, no Arizona, I had her do that, I need to warn you about Shelly." Teddy explains, "Shelly is all kinds of crazy, you don't want to be too nice to her or you'll never shake her."

"Teddy, she seems perfectly normal. I think you're exaggerating," Arizona replies.

"I'm really not and now I owe Lauren big time for saving you," Teddy says nervously glancing around to figure out how to save Lauren now.

Shelly and Lauren walk over to one of the lab tables still talking and Lauren is motioning to Teddy behind her back.

"Damn, damn," Teddy says not wanting to go over there. "Tricia, hey, would you mind going over to Lauren and..."

"Seriously Teddy" Tricia says looking over at the dark blonde cornered by Shelly Vogeler, the MedComm administrator who oversees all of the training.

"Crap, okay, I'm going in, but one of you better give me cover and pull me out soon," Teddy replies.

Just as Teddy is about to approach them, Lauren pulls her phone out and excuses herself and intercepts Teddy and the both come back over to Tricia and Arizona.

"Trish, thanks for that call. Perfect timing," Lauren says patting her on the back.

"Don't thank me, thank Arizona, she thought of it," Tricia replies.

"I don't understand, someone needs to explain this to me," Arizona says confused.

* * *

At lunch that afternoon, they all trade crazy Shelly stories and Arizona can't help but laugh at them.

"Teddy, why didn't you warn me this morning?" Arizona asks.

"I was just looking forward to seeing Lauren's face when she walked in, I forgot about you," Teddy confesses.

"Well Lauren, thank you for distracting her. I'll be more careful how much I interact with her from here on out," Arizona replies.

"Teddy has promised to help me the rest of the day, you know that I can't be rude, so please do not let me end up going to dinner with her!" Lauren says glaring at Teddy.

"Okay, okay, I owe you that much," Teddy replies.

"Tricia how was your visit with your family?" Arizona asks changing the subject.

"Too short, but Lauren was great to watch Sammy on Saturday night," Tricia says smiling at her friend.

"How old is Sammy?" Arizona asks taking a bite of her salad.

"She's four and for some reason, she loves Lauren," Tricia teases.

"I'm a kid whisperer, what can I say?" Lauren says proudly.

"Whatever Boswell," Teddy replies sarcastically.

* * *

"Who was that?" Callie asks when Meredith hangs up the phone.

"That was the President's assistant, they are recognizing Derek in a ceremony at the White House the week before Memorial Day, they want me to come out with the kids," Meredith explains.

"Wow, that's exciting!" Callie replies.

"What's exciting?" Alex asks sitting down beside Meredith in the lounge.

"I just got invited to the White House with the kids," Meredith replies.

"What for that Easter thing?" Alex asks.

"No, they're recognizing Derek in a ceremony before Memorial Day." Meredith explains, then picking her phone back up, she says, "I need to call Carolyn, she should be there too."

Callie watches Meredith on the phone and pulls up the calendar on her tablet. The schedule that she has worked out with Arizona had her coming back for Easter and then Sofia visiting the week after Memorial Day, what if she traveled with Meredith and stayed with Barbara and Daniel for a few days and then traveled back with Meredith and the kids. She should call Arizona and work it out, she thinks.

"How's Arizona?" Alex asks Callie shaking her from her thoughts.

"Uh, oh good, I think. I haven't actually talked to her lately. But Amelia's taking Sofia out there next week." Callie replies.

"Cal, any chance that you'd be able to go out with me to DC?" Meredith asks coming back into the room.

* * *

"Momma!" Sofia calls, running to the blonde.

Amelia smiles and follows the little girl across the concourse.

"I missed you so much Little Miss," Arizona says scooping the little girl up in her arms and spinning around with her.

Amelia puts a hand out to steady the two and says, "Did you know that five year olds do not fall asleep on planes?" She says laughing.

"Come on you two," Arizona says setting Sofia down and taking her hand.

Sofia looks up at Amelia and takes her hand too. The two women look at each other and laugh.

"How was the trip?" Arizona asks.

"She was great, such a good traveler already." Amelia remarks.

"Callie has taken her to Miami a couple of times, so traveling isn't new to her," Arizona explains. "How are you?"

"I'm good. I was going to try to see Owen while I was out here, but he's not returning my calls. Have you seen him?" Amelia asks.

"No I haven't and Teddy's not mentioned him. Are you sure he's here?" Arizona asks.

"No, I'm not sure of anything with him. I just feel bad, everything got so mixed up," she admits.

Arizona looks back and smiles, Sofia is asleep and they haven't even made it out to the highway yet.

"Now she sleeps!" Amelia says glancing back at the little girl. Turning back to the blonde she asks, "How's it going out here?"

"It's okay. Do you remember the name Lauren Boswell?" Arizona asks.

"Wait, Boswell... craniofacial surgeon that you slept with Lauren Boswell?" Amelia whispers.

"Yeah, that one." Arizona replies, "She's here in DC, teaching in this same program."

"Seriously? Oh wow, how is that going? Have you talked to her?" Amelia asks.

"It's weird. We went to dinner to talk, but all she wanted to say was that we both acted out of character and we should just move on from here." Arizona replies.

"So how did the moving on from there go?" Amelia teases.

"We're just colleagues, I'm not going to date the woman that I had an affair with Amelia," Arizona points out.

"I know, I know, but you need to date someone. Any other prospects out here?" She asks.

"No, I don't have time to date in Seattle, the last thing I need is a long distance relationship," she remarks.

"Okay, okay, so just have fling with someone out here. You have your own place now, right?" Amelia asks.

"I do, but I don't know. I haven't done that in a long time and then there's the whole weirdness with the prosthetic," she admits.

"You're hot enough that won't be an issue," Amelia says.

"Yeah right," Arizona retorts.

* * *

As soon as they pull up in front of the house, Daniel comes out to the car. "Where's my granddaughter?" He asks opening the car door.

"Grandpa!" Sofia says when he reaches in to unbuckle her seat.

"Hey little miss, your Grandmother and I are so happy to see you!" He says as she climbs down out of the car. "Oh my gosh, look at how big you are!" he exclaims.

Amelia goes to the back of the car and takes her luggage, Arizona takes Sofia's and they follow them into the house.

Pausing to watch Arizona's parents and Sofia get reacquainted, Arizona nods to Amelia and takes her to the guest room.

"Here, settle in and we'll have lunch soon," Arizona says turning to leave.

* * *

"Amelia, now Arizona tells us that your family lives in the area?" Barbara asks.

"Connecticut actually, I'll be taking the train up tomorrow," she explains.

"I see, well I'm sure that your mother will be happy to see you, do you have brothers and sisters?" Barbars asks.

"I have three sisters and they are all doctors, my mom was a nurse in the Navy," she adds.

"Oh my, four doctors in the family! That's impressive, she must be very proud," Daniel booms.

"Yes sir, she is." Amelia says carefully glancing away, not wanting to make eye contact with Arizona; the only person at the table to know that there were actually five doctors in her family, but she can't talk about the loss of Derek, not here with Arizona and her parents, not when they too, lost a son and brother.

"It's just wonderful of you to bring Miss Sofia out for a visit," Barbara replies, reaching over to squeeze her hand. "Now Daniel and I will clean up these dishes, why don't the two of you relax and visit."

"Thanks Mom," Arizona says reaching over to wipe Sofia's face before she climbs down from the table. "Sofia, go wash your face and hands, please."

"Momma, can we watch a movie?" Sofia asks.

"Go wash up and we'll see what's on," Arizona replies, as she and Amelia move into the living room.

"How many times have you seen Frozen?" Arizona asks.

"A thousand times between Zola and Sofia. Isn't there something else we can watch?" Amelia begs.

"Hmm, let's see. Oh god, Mom has the boxed set of Sofia The First too." Arizona groans, she's seen that a hundred times.

* * *

"Are you sure that you don't mind taking me in tomorrow?" Amelia asks as they sit up after everyone else has gone to bed.

"No, it's fine. It's an easy drive on Saturday and I can get a work out in before I come back." Arizona replies.

They sit quietly and Arizona can't help but notice that Amelia seems restless. "Hey, are you okay?" she asks.

Amelia takes a deep breath and looks away from her. "I, uh, haven't seen anyone since Derek's funeral," she says quietly.

"Amelia," Arizona says moving over to her, "believe me I understand where you're at right now, unfortunately, I've been here."

Amelia finally looks up at her with dark blue eyes wet with tears threatening to fall, "I just don't even know..." her voice trails off as she tries to hold off the tears.

"Your family will just be happy to see you, the time it took for you to get here isn't as important as the fact that you're here," Arizona says wrapping an arm around the brunette.

Amelia rests her head on the blonde's shoulder and just tries to breathe. After a few minutes, she clears her throat and says, "I have kept this bottled up for so long, I was afraid to let any of it out."

"I know, I did the same thing," Arizona admits.

"In your fortress of solitude, I've had a lot of time to think about everything," Amelia replies. "Like why don't you have cable tv?"

"My fortress of solitude?" Arizona asks smiling at her. "I don't have time for tv in Seattle," she adds.

"Yeah, I noticed. I've become strangely intense about my work staying at your place with no distractions." Amelia teases.

"Sure that isn't because Hunt is gone and you don't have anyone for random booty calls?" Arizona replies.

"Who says I don't have anyone for random booty calls?" Amelia asks playfully.

"Oh my god, did you sleep with Riggs?" Arizona blurts out, moving away from her to see her face better.

"What if I did? It not like anyone would care." Amelia replies.

"Uh, I think Hunt would care if you were sleeping with his former brother-in-law," Arizona points out.

"Maybe, but it doesn't matter. I'm done with all of them. I'm taking a break from men." Amelia says bluntly.

"What does that mean exactly?" Arizona asks. "You're taking a break from dating or just not dating men?"

"Asking for yourself or a friend?" Amelia says playfully batting her eyelashes.


	6. Chapter 6

"Hey, when do I get to see Miss Sofia?" Teddy asks Arizona Monday morning.

"I'm going to Mom and Dad's for dinner tomorrow night, you want to join me?" Arizona asks.

"Yes, that sounds great," Teddy replies happily. "Now are you ready to meet your surgeons?"

"I am, I looked over their profiles this weekend and I'll admit, I'm kind of excited to meet them." Arizona replies brightly.

"Good morning beautiful ladies," Tricia says walking up to Teddy and Arizona.

"Morning Trish, where's your roommate? She's not going to be late today is she?" Teddy asks.

"No, I think she's already here," Trish replies glancing around the conference room.

"There she is. Already scheming on the prettiest trainee in the room," Teddy points out.

Arizona remains silent, a bit uncomfortable with the discussion of Lauren's social life. Or am I jealous of it, she asks herself. Ever since Amelia flirted with her the other night, Arizona has been distracted. It wasn't the first time that Amelia has flirted with her, but it was the first time that it seemed like she meant it. But she couldn't have, because Amelia is just one of those flirty straight girls, Arizona is certain of it.

"Earth to Arizona," Teddy says waving a hand in front of her face.

Arizona shakes her head and asks, "What?".

"The woman that Lauren's talking to is one of your students, Michelle O'Connell," Teddy replies, "Let's go introduce you." She says taking the blonde's arm and leading her over there.

"Dr O'Connell, I'd like you to meet Dr Arizona Robbins." Teddy says, watching as they shake hands and glaring a bit at Lauren. "Dr Boswell, do you have a minute?" She asks.

"Sure Dr Altman," Lauren replies, nodding to Arizona and Michelle, before following Teddy back over to Tricia.

"Teddy, what the hell?" Lauren asks.

"Bos, you know that this isn't a singles mixer, right?" Teddy asks.

"Seriously? You pulled me away from her because you thought I was hitting on her?" Lauren asks, shaking her head. "I was not hitting on her, I know her from two years ago and we were just catching up and she's in my second rotation."

"Right, well she's assigned to Arizona for the next two months, so maybe back off a bit," Teddy asks.

"Fine, but is this how the next six months are going to be? You policing my every move? Because I've got to say, that's not going to work for me." Lauren says a bit annoyed.

"I'm just saying back off where Arizona is concerned, please." Teddy asks softly.

* * *

Heading to lunch, Lauren catches up to Arizona, "Hey wanna grab a bite across the street and gossip about our students?" She asks playfully.

"Hmm, I'm afraid that I don't have much gossip about them," Arizona replies.

"Don't worry, I have plenty to share," Lauren replies laughing.

"Jerry Hall, seems like a good one. He's new to the program and from Annapolis, so he should be smart as hell." Lauren points out, she's gone through both of their list of students and given the blonde the low down on each of them.

"What about Michelle? You seem to know her?" Arizona asks.

"Uh, yeah, she was here two years ago, and she's signed up for my second rotation. She was in San Antonio then, but she's at Fort Lewis now." Lauren replies.

Arizona cocks her head and asks, "No snarky comments or juicy gossip about her?"

"No, she kept to herself last time that she was here. There was a rumor that she was dating Nadia, commanding officer in San Antonio, so I think that's why most people steered clear of her," Lauren admits.

"A surgical resident dating the CO of a med unit?" Arizona asks incredulously.

"Don't tell me that you're shocked? It's still a hospital, Army or not," Lauren points out.

"Hmm, interesting. So you don't know if it was true or just a rumor?" Arizona replies.

Leaning forward to whisper conspiratorially, Lauren says, "I have it on good authority that it was true, Nadia is my ex."

"Oh, the plot thickens!" Arizona says laughing. "How recent of an ex?"

"Not recent, med school at Baylor, she was on a ROTC scholarship, it was before she went into the military." Lauren explains.

"Was she your first?" Arizona asks curiously, realizing that she knows practically nothing about Lauren.

"No, my first was in high school, Marla Wexler. We were cheerleaders together." Lauren says laughing.

"You were a cheerleader?" Arizona asks surprised.

"That's the part of that story you're questioning?" Lauren teases.

"Oh, I dated girls in high school too, but I just had never pictured you as a cheerleader," Arizona replies.

"Let me guess, you were a snarky student government kid?" Lauren says playfully.

"Nope. I hated high school, I was a punk rock outsider chick," Arizona confesses.

"Uh, nice try Robbins. I need proof of that or it's bs," Lauren replies taking a sip of her drink.

* * *

"That dinner was amazing Mrs Robbins," Teddy says as they push away from the table.

"I'm glad that you enjoyed it, do you cook?" Barbara asks, "Arizona hates to cook, she never did enjoy it."

"Mom, I don't hate to cook. I just never bother to do it for myself." Arizona replies.

"Yeah, I'm kind of the same. I don't mind cooking, but I don't like cooking when it's just for me." Teddy admits.

"Well, then since the two of you live in the same building, maybe you should cook for each other?" Barbara points out.

"Mom, the session just started, we have a lot to do right now. Besides, there are some great restaurants near the hospital. I haven't even tried them all yet." Arizona replies teasing her mother.

"Arizona!" Barbara exclaims getting up from the table to clear it.

"No, no, Mrs Robbins. You cooked we clean. That's the rule in my house. Robbins, grab that dish from your mother," Teddy says firmly.

"I'm not going to say no to that," Barbara replies happily.

"Miss Sofia, let's go get you ready for bed." Daniel says turning to his granddaughter.

"Momma will you tuck me in tonight?" Sofia asks.

"Of course I will, sweet pea. Now go get ready and I'll be in soon, okay?" Arizona says bending down to kiss her daughter's head.

"She's gotten so big." Teddy exclaims watching the little girl skip down the hall to her room.

"She turns six in May," Arizona says sadly.

"You could bring her in with us, there's a daycare at the hospital." Teddy points out.

"I know, but why would I want her in daycare when she could be here with my parents?" Arizona counters.

"Ah, good point. Well, I'm sorry that you're not getting to spend a lot of time with her." Teddy replies.

"It's fine. She's here and we've worked it out so that I'm going to see her almost every day." Arizona says smiling brightly as they load the dishwasher.

* * *

"Robbins!"

Arizona turns around when she hears her name.

"Amelia? Is everything alright?" She asks rushing over to the brunette.

"Any chance that I can crash with you for a few days? I had to get away from my sisters before I killed one of them," she replies annoyance still resonating in her voice.

"Uh, sure... of course, let me get the house keys from my locker," she replies concerned.

"I'll be fine once I get a chance to relax," she replies, noting the concerned look from the blonde.

"I'll be home around six, just make yourself comfortable, oh and here's the address, " she says writing it down quickly and handing it to her.

They talk for a few minutes walking back out to the lobby, where Arizona quickly gives her a hug. Surprisingly, Amelia kind of melts into her embrace, "Are you sure that you're okay?" Arizona asks again, pulling away enough so that she can look into her dark blue eyes.

Closing her eyes the brunette takes a deep breath, "don't. I need to go." She whispers.

Nodding Arizona pulls back and lets her go.

"Who's that?" Trish asks Lauren as they enter the lobby.

"I have no idea," Lauren replies.

"We still on for drinks tonight?" Teddy asks Arizona as they change back into their street clothes.

"No, I need to get home. Something came up," she says grabbing her stuff, "I'll explain later."

"More like someone, came up," Trish says, raising her eyebrows, petite brunette, long curly hair. Sound familiar?"

"Yeah, it's one of her friends from Seattle, she brought Arizona's daughter out to visit. I didn't know that she was still here though, I wonder what's going on?" Teddy says thoughtfully.

"They looked pretty friendly earlier, " Tricia replies.

"It's not what you think, Amelia isn't gay." Teddy remarks.

"We'll see about that..." Tricia replies turning to go. "Hey, you should join us for drinks at MoJo's, ride with me and cab home later."

* * *

Entering the house, Arizona is immediately greeted with the smell of garlic and onions, "You're cooking?!" She exclaims excitedly as she dumps her things on the chair.

"Hope you're hungry," Amelia replies from the kitchen.

"I am, this smells amazing," she says entering the kitchen.

"Okay here one taste, then you have to change into comfy clothes so that we can chill the rest of the evening, " Amelia says holding up the spoon.

"Hmm, deal. Oh, do I have time for a shower?" Arizona asks before leaving the room.

"Of course, whatever you need to do," Amelia replies smiling at her.

The shower gives Arizona time to think about everything. Amelia was fairly upset earlier and now seems fine, good chance that cooking dinner was her way of refocusing to get it together. She can't help but wonder what the evening will bring. Will she confide in me about what happened with her family, Arizona wonders. She and Amelia got close during Herman's surgery but then they sort of backed off and then when Derek died, the brunette pretty much shut everyone out.

Toweling off Arizona wonders if Amelia is finally grieving Derek's death.

* * *

"Wow, dinner was fantastic, you can stay as long as you like!" Arizona says playfully.

"I just wanted you to know that I appreciate everything you've done for me," Amelia says nervously.

"Amelia," Arizona says leaning forward, "we're friends, this is how it works."

"Friends? I don't have many of those any more, guess I forgot how it works. " she replies laughing softly.

"Well, you have me and Callie, too. Believe me she wouldn't have let you bring Sofia out if she didn't like you." Arizona points out.

"Yeah, but she's not really my friend. She's Meredith and Owen's friend, I just get the feeling that she tolerates me," Amelia counters.

"Hmm," Arizona considers that comment and begins to pick up dishes.

"Oh here, I've got it", Amelia says jumping up to help.

"No, you cooked. I'll clean," she says smiling at her.

"Let's just clean up together and then maybe we can watch a movie or something," Amelia suggests.

* * *

"What did you find for us to watch?" Arizona asks sitting down on the couch beside her.

"Edge of Tomorrow, Into the Woods, Pitch Perfect 2, Frozen?" Amelia replies.

"Hmm, I haven't seen the first Pitch Perfect, not in the mood for a Tom Cruise movie and seriously, Frozen?" Arizona asks. Then suggests, "How about Into the Woods?".

"Into the Wood it is," Amelia replies selecting it and setting the remote down.

"I like Emily Blunt, this should be good," Arizona comments and slips her prosthetic off and covers up with a throw.

"She was great in the Newsroom," Amelia replies, pulling the throw over to cover her legs.

"She wasn't in the Newsroom, you're thinking of someone else," Arizona says, looking around for her phone.

"You're going to google it, aren't you?" Amelia says amused.

"Well, now it's going to bug me," she admits.

"I don't see your phone, so you're going to have to deal with it," Amelia replies playfully.

Arizona grabs the remote, pauses the movie, "where's your phone, look it up, please?" she asks.

Pulling her phone out of her pocket, she quickly looks it up. "Okay, I'm wrong. Emily Blunt wasn't in the Newsroom," she says and sets the phone down beside her.

"Amelia! Who was it?" Arizona asks, reaching over her for the phone.

Laughing Amelia hands it to her, "here, check it."

"It's locked, hmm, maybe I can guess your unlock sequence," Arizona says concentrating.

"I'd like to see you do that, you can barely operate your own phone," Amelia teases.

"Hmm," Arizona looks the phone over and holds it at an angle, makes a face, then types in 7295 and it unlocks.

"What the hell? How did you do that?" Amelia asks shocked.

"Your first initial is A like mine, so I figured that you'd use the same one I do," Arizona says laughing. Then she pulls up the search, "Emily Mortimer, okay, now we can turn the movie back on," she says leaning over her to set the phone beside her.

Amelia looks at her, "You haven't asked me about what happened with my sisters."

"Do you want to talk about it?" Arizona asks curiously.

"Not really, I just expected you to ask me about it," Amelia replies.

"Amelia, I'm here when you're ready to talk, but it's not a requirement," Arizona says, taking her hand. "If you just want to chill and watch a movie, then that's fine."

"Thanks," Amelia says reaching over for the remote with her other hand and hitting play.

Arizona smiles at her and looks down at their hands, laughs softly and then pulls Amelia over so she rests against her and then looks back up to watch the movie.


	7. Chapter 7

_**A/N: prepare yourselves for a fun exciting chapter full of girl pal drama... don't hold onto your ship too tightly though**_

* * *

Amelia is stunned, it's all she can do to control her breathing and try to keep her heart from pounding out of her chest being this close to her. She has no idea what's going on in the movie, she can't focus on anything but how it feels to be this close to Arizona.

Now she's laying in bed thinking about everything. It's not like she hasn't been with women before, she has but that was when she was using and they weren't ever relationships, just hookups. These feelings for Arizona have been growing for awhile now and then the thing with her sisters happened and Amelia ran to her. But now Amelia is really confused. Was the cuddling on the couch just Arizona's way of comforting her, or does it mean more.

Amelia's phone buzzes and she picks it up from the side table, it's Liz.

"Hey," she says softly.

"Amelia, where are you? I'll come get you and you can stay with me," Liz says worriedly.

"I'm at a friends place in DC, I'm fine." Amelia replies.

"Look, you know that Nancy and Kate meant well, they're just worried about you," Liz says trying to apologize for her sisters.

"Liz, you weren't there, you didn't see the condescending looks on their faces as they presumed to talk to me about grief and addiction cycles as if I was still a fifteen year old. I'm a goddamn neurosurgeon!" she said her voice getting loud.

They talk a bit more and then Amelia hangs up the phone, agreeing to call her back in the morning.

Amelia lays back down her heart racing from the conversation she's replaying in her head when there's a soft knock at the door.

"Amelia, can I come in?" Arizona asks softly.

"Yeah, sorry if I woke you up," she mumbles turning over away from the door. She feels the bed dip as the blonde lowers herself beside her.

"You sounded upset, was that one of your sisters?" Arizona asks reaching a hand out to rest on her shoulder.

"It was." Amelia says rolling over to see the soft caring eyes of her friend. Her anger begins to melt away and her face relaxes as she gazes at the blonde.

"Do you need to talk or anything?" Arizona asks as she notices the brunette's response to her. Worried that she's overstepped, she pulls her hand back. Amelia is emotional right now and Arizona doesn't want to complicate things between them. It's just ever since she picked her up from the airport with Sofia, she felt something was different between them. Her flirty banter felt real this time, but maybe it's just been so long since Arizona's been close to anyone besides her daughter and Alex, she is just reading into it.

Amelia watches her face, she sees a myriad of things cross the blonde's mind. She wants to sit up and kiss her, but just as she's thinking of doing it, the blonde pulls her hand back and leans away from her just slightly.

"I'm good. I promised Liz that I'd talk to her in the morning," Amelia replies, unable to break eye contact with her.

"Okay, I'm just not used to seeing you this way, so I wanted to make sure that you were alright," Arizona explains.

"I'll be fine, I just need to get away from my family. They don't see me, they still see that messed up teenager and I haven't been that person for a long time." Amelia replies.

"I'm sorry that they haven't gotten to know the you that I know," Arizona says softly, "You are a confident and brilliant surgeon and a good friend, they're missing out."

"Arizona?" Amelia says softly as the blonde begins to stand up.

"Hmm?" she says turning back to the bed.

"Thank you," Amelia says scrambling to stand up beside her before leaning in and embracing her.

Arizona barely hides her gasp when the brunette's strong arms wrap around her and she can feel the contours of their bodies touching through their sleepwear.

Amelia whispers goodnight into the blonde's ear and its all Arizona can do not to tremble when she feels Amelia's breath on her neck.

Shutting the door behind her, Arizona takes a moment to catch her breath leaning against the wall, she did not expect to react to the brunette that way.

* * *

The next morning, Arizona is up early to meet Teddy, it's too cold to walk, so they've been driving over together.

"How was your evening?" Teddy asks.

"Oh, it was good. Amelia cut her visit with her family short and showed up yesterday afternoon. Sorry to bail on you, but she was a little upset, so we just had dinner and stayed in last night." Arizona explains.

"I see. Now Amelia is Derek's little sister, right?" Teddy asks.

"Right, you should meet her, she's great. And if she's up to it, maybe we can all go out for drinks tonight," Arizona says brightly.

"Is there something going on with you two?" Teddy asks.

"Uh, no why would you even ask that? She doesn't date women," Arizona replies.

"Interesting choice of words Robbins." Teddy says smiling at her. "Let me know about tonight, I'm in." she adds.

* * *

"Liz, no absolutely not. I'm not coming back up there. Look, I don't need their approval or acceptance, what I need is for them to not treat me like shit. Right now the only way to accomplish that is to not be near them. I've already talked with Mom and she just told me about Derek's award. I'd like to come out for it, but I'm not promising anything right now. Honestly, my relationship with Meredith is as bad as my one with Kate and Nancy." Amelia explains.

"Amelia, what happened with Meredith? I thought you were living together?" Liz asks.

"We were and I was sort of seeing Owen Hunt, he's the ex-husband of her friend Cristina Yang," Amelia begins to explain.

"Oh crap, I remember Yang, they were tight, but she's in Zurich now, right?" Liz asks.

"Right, she divorced him and left the country. Anyway, there was a situation at hospital with another doctor, apparently he and Owen have a history and I was trying to find out what was going on, because I care for Owen, but Meredith ends up between us and we argue about it. She ends up telling me to move out of the house," Amelia says trying to explain it as briefly as possible.

"Oh jeez, Amelia I had no idea. So where are you living now?" Liz questions, concern etching her voice.

"I'm staying at Arizona's place while she's here in DC," Amelia replies, "and now I'm staying here with her for a few days before I go back to Seattle."

"Arizona? Wait, Arizona Robbins, she was in the plane crash with Derek and Meredith? Wasn't she with Dr Torres, Derek's surgeon who did the nerve graft?" Liz asks.

"Yes Liz, but they've been divorced for a few years now. Arizona lives alone and had an extra room, plus she's out here working at MedCom until June." Amelia explains.

"Wait, you're seeing her," Liz says, it's not a question.

"No, we're just friends," Amelia replies.

"Hmm, but you have feelings for her, I can tell, you have that little catch in your voice when you say her name," Liz says calling her little sister out.

"Liz, I've never dated women," Amelia replies.

"Hmm, but you've always had intense relationships with your friends," Liz replies.

"Liz, you don't know what you're talking about," Amelia protests.

"Charlotte, Amelia. I'm talking about you and Charlotte." Liz counters. Then adds, "I just think that if there's someone in your life who makes you feel safe, and Arizona obviously does, you should see if there's more there," Liz replies encouraging her.

"God Liz, can you just imagine what Nancy and Kate would say, if I dated Arizona?" she replies joking.

"Who cares? It's your life, be happy Amy." Liz replies.

* * *

Arizona pulls her phone out on the break to check in with Amelia and is happy to see several messages from her.

 _"I've talked to Mom and Liz, much better now. Thx again."_

 _"Hey, we should go out tonight... call me"_

 _"Are you up for it? Going out tonight?"_

Smiling, Arizona calls her back. "Hey, I'm on a break and have a few minutes. What are you thinking?"

"Hold on, I just got back from a run and I'm standing in front of the building," Amelia replies.

Arizona hears her punch in the code and open the heavy door, "Okay, so yeah, we should go out for drinks or something, isn't there a club around here of some sort?"

"Yeah, it's a Thursday though, I'm not sure what's going on. I'll ask around," Arizona replies.

"Darts, dancing, some place with stuff to do besides drink," Amelia reminds her.

"Okay, okay, got it. I'll let you know," Arizona says laughing.

"What's so funny?" Teddy asks as Arizona ends the call.

"Amelia wants to go out tonight, but she doesn't drink, so she says there has to be darts, pool or dancing. Where should we go?" she asks.

"Hmm," Teddy pauses to think about the bars in the area.

"Oh and you're invited!" Arizona adds.

"Where are you going?" Tricia asks, walking up with Lauren.

"Arizona wants to take her friend out tonight, you guys should join us," Teddy says glancing over at the blonde.

"Yes, please join us, the more the merrier. So where should we go?" Arizona asks. "There needs to be darts and pool."

"MoJo's was fun last night," Trish suggests. "And they have darts and pool."

* * *

Teddy knocks on Arizona's door and a slender brunette answers it.

"Wow, you must be Derek's sister, y-y-you have his eyes," Teddy blurts out.

"I do and I am, Amelia Shepherd," she says extending her hand.

"Teddy Altman, good to finally meet you," Teddy says shaking her hand. "I'd say that I've heard a lot about you, but that wouldn't be true."

"Well, I've heard a lot about you and it's great to meet you finally," Amelia says smoothly, glancing over as Arizona enters the room.

"Uh, wow, you look great," Teddy says turning around to face the blonde, stealing a glance at Amelia she smiles, just as she expected, the brunette obviously has a little crush on Arizona.

"Okay, so we can just cab over, Julie's going to meet us there so we can come back in her car," Teddy explains.

"Who's Julie?" Amelia asks.

"She's my neighbor and a neurologist at the NIH," Teddy replies. "I don't think I've been out with this many lesbians, this should be interesting!" Teddy remarks.

"Uh, me either. Where are we going again?" Amelia asks a little nervously. Arizona did fill her in on Teddy's relationship to Owen, so she's going to be careful not to mention him.

"We're going to MoJo's, it's a neighborhood bar across town, we don't actually have a gay area here, but if we did, this would be it." Teddy explains.

* * *

"Well, I've never been to a lesbian bar sober, this should be interesting," Amelia jokes with Arizona as they get out of the cab.

"Oh good, Lauren and Tricia are already here," Teddy says slipping her phone back into her bag after paying the cab driver.

Entering the bar, Amelia enters first and looks around, it's mostly women dressed in everything from jeans to suits. Then she spots a tall dark blonde who freezes when she spots Arizona entering the bar. Well that must be Lauren, she thinks.

Teddy spots the two women at the same time as Arizona, but Teddy heads right over to them, while Arizona heads to the bar.

"Can I open a tab and get two dirty martinis and a club soda lime?" Arizona asks glancing at Amelia who nods.

"Starting with a martini? Are you nervous about tonight?" Amelia asks leaning into her.

"Uh, no. It's just been a long week," Arizona replies nervously licking her lips. What was she thinking coming here with both Lauren and Amelia?

"Hey, can I help with that?" Lauren asks approaching the two women.

"Oh hey Lauren, meet Amelia. Amelia Shepherd, Lauren Boswell." Arizona says picking up both martinis and taking a sip of each before attempting to cross the room to the table.

Teddy takes one and then looks at the two women trailing the blonde, maybe I shouldn't have invited Julie, she thinks.

* * *

Coming back with quarters, Teddy asks, "Let's go play darts!"

"We have an odd number, I'll sit out this game," Tricia says.

"Amelia and I against you and Lauren," Arizona says taking another big sip of her martini. "Is this okay?" She asks Amelia as they move to a table closer to the dart board.

"It's great actually," Amelia replies, "So I've noticed that Lauren can hardly take her eyes off of you? That's her, right?"

Arizona's eyes darken and she grimaces, "yeah, but we're just sort of friends now," she explains, "at least we're going to try to be."

"She sure looks friendly," Amelia teases as she begins to pick out their darts from the bucket.

"Stop," Arizona warns playfully.

They alternate turns and Teddy hits a bullseye, "Next round's on you again Robbins!" she teases.

She looks over to see what Lauren and Tricia are drinking, then she heads back to the bar to get the round.

"Can I help?" Julie asks coming up behind her.

"Oh yeah, that would be great, can I get you a drink too?" Arizona asks.

"Sure, that martini looks great, how about another one of those?" Julie says, "So Teddy already got a bullseye?"

"She did, I haven't played darts with her in a long time, I should probably switch from martinis!" Arizona jokes.

"So Teddy said your friend Amelia Shepherd is in town, is she related to Derek Shepherd?" Julie asks as she takes a martini and a bottle of beer in each hand.

"Derek was her brother," Arizona replies, "oh my, you're good at this," she remarks nodding at her carrying the drinks.

"One guess, how I paid my way through college!" Julie replies laughing.

"Hey look who I found!" Arizona says when they get back to the table with the drinks.

* * *

"Sweet!" Arizona says a bit loudly as Amelia hits another bullseye putting them almost out first. Teddy and Lauren have been stuck at 15 for two rounds, neither able to hit it.

"Okay, this round is on me", Lauren says heading up to the bar.

"Lauren, wait," Arizona says following her. "No more martinis for me, I just need a soda," she says bumping into her, "Oops, see I need to slow down."

"We've never had drinks together, you're cute a little tipsy," Lauren replies as she reaches out to steady the blonde.

"Uh," Arizona gasps when Lauren grabs her.

"Hey, I'll help you with the drinks," Amelia says coming up behind them, "you okay?" she asks the blonde who looks a bit flushed.

"Yeah, yeah, I'm good." Arizona says as Amelia follows Lauren to the bar.

Arizona returns to the table and smiles, so who's playing next game?" she asks.

"Me and you against Julie and Trish," Teddy replies excitedly. "Just like old times Robbins, remember us kicking Mark and Callie's ass at darts?"

"I think we had a bit of an advantage in those games Teddy," Arizona replies laughing.

"Oh good point", Teddy says and undoes another button on her blouse and adjusts her cleavage, then turns to wink at Julie and Trish.

"Maybe I should have told Lauren not to bring you another martini!" Arizona teases.

"No more martinis," Lauren says returning to the table with a round of tequila shots and beers.

* * *

Coming back from the bathroom, Arizona stops to look at the juke box on the wall.

Amelia comes up behind her, "Play something that we can dance to," she says slipping money into the machine.

"Hmm, here's a good one," she says laughing as the sounds of Katy Perry's Roar flood the bar.

Teddy and Julie come over to pick more songs as Amelia pulls Arizona out onto the dance floor.

Lauren and Trish join in and soon all six of them are dancing around on the makeshift dance floor.

Halfway through the second song, Arizona heads back to the table and Lauren follows her.

"Your friend is fun," she remarks, leaning in so the blonde can hear her.

"Yeah, she's had a tough time lately, it's good to see her having fun," Arizona replies, taking a sip of water.

"What about you? Are you having a good time?" Lauren asks leaning in again.

"I am," Arizona says and looks up, surprised at how close Lauren's face is and then she has a flash back to that on call room, pulling back she licks her lips nervously and glances around.

On the dance floor, Julie and Amelia have paired off and the song changes to Black Velvet, and Julie pulls the small brunette in close to dance a slow two-step side by side, it's hot and Arizona swallows nervously.

Lauren watches her react to the dancers and then grabs her hand, "Come on, you can two-step, right?" she asks.

"Um, I don't know, I haven't done it in a long time," Arizona replies.

"I'll lead, you follow," Lauren says pulling her into her laughing.

Julie and Amelia practically stop when they see Lauren and Arizona dancing, then Julie spins the brunette and pulls her in close, "You're a great dancer," Amelia says breathlessly.

"You're pretty good yourself, are you going to be around this weekend? Maybe we could go out again?" Julie asks.

Amelia glances over at Arizona and Lauren one more time, then she turns and kisses Julie.

Arizona glances over and stops in her tracks when she sees the two women kissing. "Oh shit," she says.

"Uh, I thought Teddy said she was your straight friend?" Lauren comments.

"Yeah, I didn't see that coming. I should probably get her out of here," Arizona says moving to go interrupt them.

"Arizona, Amelia's not drinking, you don't need to take care of her," Lauren replies, confused as to why the blonde feels like she needs to intervene.

"Look, it's complicated. She may be sober, but she's not in a good place, I just don't want her to do something that she regrets, okay?" Arizona says crossing the dance floor and tapping Amelia on the shoulder.

"Amelia, can I talk to you?" She says apologizing to Julie for interrupting.

Around the bar, everyone is now watching to see what happens.

"Arizona, I'm having fun, what is the problem?" Amelia asks when she sees the frown and concern on the blonde's face.

"I think you're getting carried away," she points out.

"She's not the first woman that I've kissed, Arizona." Amelia says turning to face the blonde as Julie goes back to the table.

"Look, we've had fun but we're both getting a bit carried away, let's just call a cab and go before we both do something we can't take back," Arizona replies taking her hand.

The cab ride back to the townhouse is a bit uncomfortable, Amelia is annoyed, but also curious about Arizona's reaction to seeing her kiss Julie. Amelia surprised herself when she did that, but she couldn't stand seeing Arizona and Lauren dancing together like that, so she just kissed Julie.

Arizona pays the cab driver and they head into the building.

"Okay, maybe I got a little carried away." Amelia replies as they enter the house.

"I understand and I'll explain it to Julie, I'm sure that you're not the first straight girl to kiss her," Arizona replies laughing.

"Is that what you think of me?" Amelia asks, "That I'm careless and just do whatever I feel like without thinking of the consequences?"

"Uh, no. I just meant that song was hot and you just, uh, maybe you were just carried away in the moment," Arizona suggests, taking her coat off and hanging it up.

Amelia crosses the room to take the blonde's arm and turn her around, "I kissed her but only because I wanted to do this," she says pulling Arizona into her and kissing her, then she pulls away and goes into her room.

Arizona stands there stunned. What the hell just happened?

"Amelia, what the hell was that?" Arizona asks bursting into her room.

Amelia turns around, her dark blue eyes sparkling as she looks at her nervously biting her lip.

The look on the brunette's face is unmistakable, Arizona rushes to her and wraps her arms around her and kisses her roughly. Amelia gasps, then puts her arms around the blonde and deepens the kiss.

Breathlessly the pull apart and sit down on the bed, "Whoa," Arizona says softly.

"Yeah," Amelia says reaching over and taking her hand and moving in for another kiss before pushing the blonde back on the bed and moving on top of her.


	8. Chapter 8

Arizona wakes up the next morning when she hears a door shut. It takes her a minute to realize that she's not in her room. Then she looks for Amelia, but she's gone, suitcase and all. "Fuck", she says out loud. Moving to the edge of the bed she picks up her prosthetic and slips it back on, then sees her clothes laid out on the end of the bed. Shit, did Amelia just leave? What time is it she wonders.

"Amelia?", she calls out. No answer.

She rushes to her room and tosses the clothes on the bed and grabs her robe, before heading out into the living room to get the phone. There's a voice mail, two missed calls and few text messages.

"I'm sorry that I left like this, but please know two things. One, I wanted last night to happen. And two, I need some time to figure some things out." Amelia says in the message.

The text messages are from Teddy, one from last night and one from this morning.

She calls her back and when she answers she says, "Teddy I'm an idiot."

* * *

Sitting in Teddy's kitchen over coffee, Arizona tells her everything.

"Arizona, you're overreacting. Look, she doesn't regret it, that's a good sign, right?" Teddy points out.

"Yeah, maybe, but I brought her back here because I didn't want her to do that with a stranger, " Arizona counters.

"Well mission accomplished, she didn't have sex with a stranger," Teddy quips.

Arizona's phone rings.

"Hey mom, uh, yeah, I'll be there in a few hours. Okay, can't wait," Arizona says before ending the call. "Ugh, I need to get it together and get out to my parents house. Thanks Teddy. Sorry about last night." She says finishing her coffee.

"Last night was fun, don't worry about it." Teddy replies.

* * *

Driving on the highway, Arizona can't stop replaying last night over and over. She can't believe that she had sex with Amelia Shepherd last night. Even if Amelia says that she wanted it to happen that doesn't erase the fact that Arizona didn't want it to happen. Well a part of her didn't want it to happen like that, but obviously another part of her very much wanted it.

* * *

Amelia sits in the airport coffee shop, she's never been this early for a flight before but, when she woke up this morning with Arizona curled up around her, she panicked. What did it mean to the blonde? Was she drunk? She'd had quite a bit to drink, but she didn't seem drunk when they left and she did kiss her back. As long as she's known the blonde, neither of them has had a one night stand. In fact, it is something they talked about a few weeks ago, Arizona mentioned that she hadn't had sex in so long that she wanted it to really mean something. She wanted to wait until she was in a relationship. So does this mean she'd consider a relationship with Amelia?

* * *

"How was your trip?" Edwards asks when she picks up Amelia at the airport that afternoon.

"It was fine. Thanks for picking me up. I know that I said I'd take the Metro, but I didn't get much sleep last night and I'm too tired to think." Amelia admits.

"Oh so you met up with Dr Hunt?" Edwards asks hopefully.

"No, I was out with some friends. And before you ask, no I didn't drink or anything, just had a bit too much fun." Amelia remarks.

"I wasn't going to ask, " Edwards says, this is weird territory for them. Ever since Shepherd found out about Stephanie's medical trial, she has shared her own trials. And a month ago she called Stephanie to pick her up at Joe's and take her across town to a meeting and stay with her. So they have bonded in a way that Edwards never imagined.

"Just, uh, drop me off at Arizona's and I'll cab over to get my car later." Amelia says sinking into the passenger seat and closing her eyes.

Entering Arizona's place she drops her bags and promptly lays down on the couch. Just as she is drifting off to sleep the house phone rings, she glances at the read out on the handset, its Arizona. She closes her eyes again and lets it to go to voice mail.

A few minutes later she opens her eyes and watches the message light blink, four messages. Sitting up she takes the handset and punches the code. Arizona's voice fills the room.

Message one, "Amelia, did you take an earlier flight? Call me when you get in."

Message two, "ugh, your phone is still turned off, please don't dodge me. Maybe you're still flying."

Message three is Liz, "Hey, why is your phone off? Are you still in DC? Call me!"

Message four, "Amelia, I'm pretty sure that your plane has landed and you're probably lying on the couch freaking out. Just call me, let's figure this out together."

* * *

Fortunately for Arizona the week flies by and other than exchanging a few texts with Amelia, she's heading back to Seattle unsure of what to expect.

Walking across the concourse, Arizona is trying to get her phone out but Sofia is pulling her forward. "Mami!" Sofia exclaims, letting go of Arizona's hand and running to Callie.

Confused but relieved to see Callie, she rushes after Sofia. "Oh hey, I didn't know you were picking us up," Arizona says catching up to them.

"Amelia paged me earlier and asked if I could," Callie explains.

"Have you seen her?" Arizona asks.

"Amelia? Yeah, brown hair, blue eyes this tall," Callie replies sarcastically. "Wait, why did something happen? "

"No, I just haven't spoken to her much this week," Arizona says hoping to satisfy Callie's curiosity.

* * *

Do you just want me to drop you off? You sure that you don't need anything?", Callie asks pulling up to Arizona's building.

"I'll be fine. Thanks Calliope, " Arizona says climbing out of the car and opening the back door to kiss Sofia goodbye, "I'll see you tomorrow for lunch, little miss".

"Here's your bag, Callie says handing her the small overnight bag.

"Thanks again and I'll see you tomorrow," Arizona says leaning in to kiss her cheek.

"Okay, just call if you need anything, okay?" Callie says again.

Arizona shakes her head and laughs, it's like Callie has forgotten that she lives here.

* * *

Entering her house, Arizona is surprised at how clean it is and how great it smells. She picks up a note from the counter. "It's my on call weekend, there's dinner in the fridge, hope your week went well, Amy".

She pulls out her phone, "Don't think that I don't know that you switched your on-call weekend to avoid me." she texts.

Amelia replies with a smiley face.

Arizona decides to heat up the dinner that Amelia left for her and go through her mail while she eats.

She takes her bag into her room, showers and changes clothes. Now restless and annoyed that Amelia is avoiding her, she decides to go to the hospital.

* * *

"Hey, I didn't expect to see you tonight," April says when Arizona enters the ER.

"I got in a few hours ago, can you do me a favor and page Shepherd?" Arizona asks.

"Why don't you just call her, isn't she your roommate?" April asks confused.

Taking the redhead's hand, Arizona pulls her to the side, "Look, something happened in DC and she's sort of avoiding me, just page her please?"

"What happened?" April asks.

"April, you know that I tell you everything, but please, I need to talk to her first," Arizona asks biting her lip nervously.

"Uh, of course." April says reaching over for the phone.

A few minutes later, Edwards shows up. "Hey Dr Kepner, you paged neuro?" she asks.

Arizona steps out from around the desk, "I thought Amelia was on call, why are you responding to her page?" Arizona asks.

"She's working on something and I'm still here, that's all," Edwards replies, "So what was the page?"

Arizona takes the resident by the hand and pulls her into the supply room.

"Look, I don't know if you know why Amelia is avoiding me, but I really need to see her. Is she really here in the hospital?" Arizona asks the resident.

Stephanie does know the reason that Amelia is avoiding the blonde, and she too wants them to talk, so she pulls out a pen and paper and writes down her address. "You didn't get this from me, but she's at my place," Stephanie says handing her the address.

"Thank you!" Arizona says and rushes out.

* * *

Knocking on the apartment door, Arizona is praying that Amelia will open the door, but she doesn't. She starts pacing the hall, when the elevator opens and a couple gets out. She gets an idea, "Excuse me, do you know Stephanie, who lives here?" she asks.

"Uh, yeah, she's a doctor," the guy replies.

"Okay, so I'm wanting to play a prank on her, would you mind pounding on her door and yelling something like, Stephanie, I know you're in there, I love you and I can't live without you!" then she'll open the door and I'll surprise her, because I'm visiting from out of town," Arizona says this all rapidly and it takes them a moment to understand what she's asking.

"Uh, you're sure that she'll think that's funny?", he asks.

"Oh she will, because she did it to me last time she visited," Arizona says smoothly lying to them.

He steps up and bangs on the door and yells, a few minutes later the door flies open and Amelia is standing there staring at them. Arizona pushes her way in past her and yells thanks over her shoulder.

"Arizona, what the hell?" Amelia asks confused.

"We're talking about this, now. I'm only here until Sunday," she points out.

"I said that I needed time," Amelia protests.

"You've had time. Now you're just being an ass," Arizona counters.

"How am I an ass? I made you dinner and cleaned the apartment," Amelia replies.

"Okay, that was nice, but you're avoiding me and lying to me, so yep, you're an ass," the blonde says stepping up to the brunette and pulling her close.

"Look, I don't know how to do this," Amelia says looking away from the blonde nervously.

"Well, let me help," Arizona says leaning in and kissing her.

Relieved, Amelia deepens the kiss and wraps her arms around the blonde. "Wait, how did you know I was here?"

"I'm not telling. Just please can we go home and talk?" Arizona asks as she intertwines their hands.

"Talk?" Amelia teases, "You just want to talk?"

"We can go talk at my place or stay here and talk and wait for your resident to come home, your choice?" Arizona replies, batting her eyes playfully.

"Just let me tell Edwards what's going on, because I really am on call this weekend." Amelia confesses.

"You're an idiot, you know that right?", Arizona replies.


	9. Chapter 9

_**A/N: Love the love! And my schedule has lightened up, so I've got more time to write!**_

* * *

"Momma!" Sofia says running to Arizona when she enters the restaurant.

"Hey little miss," Arizona says bending down to kiss her, then standing up she hugs Callie lightly.

"Did you get us a table?" Callie asks.

"Yep, should be a few minutes," Arizona replies brightly, "We didn't get a chance to talk yesterday, how is everything with you?"

"You heard," Callie says, grimacing "Of course you heard, everyone gossips at that hospital."

Reaching out Arizona places a hand on Callie's arm, "I was honestly just asking, I haven't heard anything," she replies.

"Oh," Callie says surprised. "Blake and I broke up, again."

"I'm sorry, really." Arizona replies. "Did something happen?"

"Robbins, party of three," the hostess calls out.

"Right here," Arizona says holding up her hand.

* * *

Seated at the table with Sofia happily coloring, Callie turns to the blonde, "How is it going in DC?"

"Oh, it's great. I'm training three surgeons, they're all super sharp and catching on quickly. Of course, it's not like I'm teaching them to do valvuloplasty in the field or anything," she remarks.

"That's great Arizona. And how's Teddy?" Callie asks.

"She's great! Dating a guy, but he's on a mission so I haven't met him yet." Arizona replies.

"Oh did you hear about Derek's award? Meredith asked me to come out with her, so I thought I could just bring Sofia a week earlier, if that's okay?" Callie asks.

"Oh, yeah. Amelia mentioned that, she is thinking of coming out for that too." Arizona remarks.

"Oh, I didn't realize that Meredith asked her to go," Callie replies carefully.

"I think that Carolyn wants all of the girls to go," Arizona replies.

"Uh, Carolyn? Since when are you on a first name basis with Derek's mom?" Callie asks nervously.

"Oh please, we're roommates, remember?" Arizona reminds her.

"Oh, look our food!" Arizona says delighted to change the topic, because Callie doesn't need to know that Amelia's mom has called her a few times worried about Amelia. In fact, Arizona hasn't even told Amelia about it yet.

* * *

"Dinner?" Arizona texts Amelia. They talked last night, but Amelia was paged and then spent the night at the hospital. Arizona doesn't want to rush her, but it's obvious that they have a connection and both care about each other, but is it enough to base a relationship on?

"Not sure, I'll call you." Amelia replies.

Not holding her breath, Arizona calls Alex and Jo and makes plans with them instead.

* * *

"Hey, you're back." Teddy says opening the door to let Arizona inside. "How did it go with Amelia?

"She was on-call all weekend. I had to track her down and before we could really talk, she got paged," Arizona replies, "and basically spent the rest of the weekend at the hospital avoiding me."

"So how did you leave it? Is this a relationship with her?" Teddy asks.

"No, yes... okay, I don't know," Arizona exclaims in frustration.

"What do you want?" Teddy asks.

"I don't think it matters what I want, if she's not ready," Arizona points out.

Teddy hands her a glass of scotch, "True dat," she says taking a big drink of her own glass.

* * *

"How was your weekend?" Lauren asks Arizona in the locker room the next morning.

"It was good, thanks for asking," Arizona replies.

"I, uh, I saw Michelle this weekend and she thinks that you're a great teacher," Lauren says, closing her locker. "Would you mind if I observe your first session today?"

"Uh, no that's fine," Arizona replies, "So are you closing the circle then with Michelle?" she teases.

"Closing the.. oh, no... she was with my ex, no I'm not going there. But she is a promising surgeon and I think she's a friend now," Lauren explains. "And how about you? I saw how you reacted to Amelia kissing Julie, how did taking her home work out for you?"

"Uh, yeah. Not talking about that," Arizona replies shaking her head.

"Wait, you can tease me about Michelle, but I can't tease you about Amelia?" Lauren asks, "What is that?"

"Sorry, the whole thing with Amelia is complicated," she says shutting her locker. "Lauren, I can't even think about it right now, let alone talk about it," Arizona replies taking off for her first session.

* * *

"Lunch?" Lauren asks as they walk out of the lab together.

"Uh, you're just trying to get me to talk about this thing with Amelia, but it's not going to happen," Arizona says smiling at her.

"Actually, I took notes on your session and I have some questions," Lauren replies, "So lunch?"

"Lunch sounds great," Arizona says, "but you're buying."

* * *

Arizona is sitting in the skills lab watching her three students practicing cutting amniotic bands in the simulators, but she's still thinking of how to talk to Amelia. It's understandable that she's overwhelmed, but she initiated this, so it's bullshit for her to start it and then disappear.

"Dr Robbins?" Michelle calls to her.

"Yes, Dr O'Connell?" Arizona says going over to her.

"In this scenario, the band is really close to the aorta, I know the approach that we're supposed to do, but wouldn't it be more efficient and less risky to go in from this angle?" she asks.

"Yes, but it's not always possible to go in from that angle, but you're correct, that is the better approach," Arizona says, smiling to herself, Lauren is right, she is quite promising.

Going back over to the desk, she checks her phone to see if Amelia has responded to her text yet. Nothing. Then her phone buzzes. It's Callie sending her a picture that Sofia drew in school.

"Uh, I didn't realize that you have a child." Dr O'Connell remarks.

"Oh!" Arizona jumps, she didn't hear her approach. "Uh, yes I do." Arizona says clicking off the phone. "Is there something else Dr O'Connell?"

"I am really enjoying this rotation, is there any chance that we could meet later and go over a few things?" The young surgeon asks.

"Uh, yeah sure." Arizona replies, pleased by the woman's initiative.

* * *

"Hey, we're going for drinks at Harlings after work, join us?" Teddy asks when they pass in the hallway.

"Oh rain check, I'm meeting a student after work, she has questions!" Arizona says excitedly.

"She? As in Michelle O'Connell, your only female student?" Teddy asks.

"Yes, Lauren's right, she's really great," Arizona says still smiling happily.

Teddy begins laughing and Arizona looks at her confused.

"What is so funny?" she asks.

"Oh she's good, you don't even see it coming do you?" Teddy asks.

"Teddy, what are you talking about?" Arizona asks.

"She's hot for the teacher, Arizona." Teddy replies as if it's obvious.

"No, she's just really interested in fetal medicine, which makes sense because I'm an awesome teacher." Arizona says confidently.

"You are a great teacher, I sat in on her first session today," Lauren says coming up behind Teddy, "but you're also hot," she says blatantly checking out the blonde. "I'm sorry what were you two talking about?" Lauren says flashing a bright smile at both of them.

"O'Connell asked to meet with Arizona tonight," Teddy explains, "to talk fetal medicine."

"Ha! that makes sense, you're her type, hot, older, brillant," Lauren explains, "single."

"Oh please, she's not going to hit on me," Arizona protests, "And I'm not exactly single."

Lauren and Teddy both look at her questioningly.

"Okay, I'm mostly single, but I don't do long distance relationships and she's a student!" Arizona points out.

"Uh, she lives in the Seattle area so it wouldn't be long distance," Lauren points out mischievously, hiding her smile.

"And she's a surgeon in a training program, not really a student," Teddy adds, snickering.

"So now you're encouraging me to date her?" Arizona asks incredulously.

"NO!" they both exclaim.

* * *

"Have you heard from her?" Tricia asks returning to the table with another round of beers.

"Nothing, here's $20 that O'Connell tries to turn this into a week of tutoring sessions," Teddy replies, setting the money on the table.

"I'm not sure she has the patience for that, $20 says she tries to kiss her tonight," Lauren quips placing another $20 bill on top of Teddy's.

"Here's another that says you're both wrong and she simply wanted to talk fetal medicine." Tricia says, then looking up she notices Arizona at the bar. "Guess we're about to find out."

They all look up and then start laughing when Arizona turns around with a tray of shots. She sees the money on the table and asks, "what are the bets?"

"Oh no, you tell us what happened first?" Teddy counters.

"She had a lot of questions, really good questions about fetal surgery," Arizona begins, placing a shot in front of each of them, "as we talked, she inched closer and closer to me, but really sneaky, it took me a few minutes to realize it, then all of a sudden her hand was on my arm and her face was like right here," the blonde says holding her hand inches from her face.

"Did she kiss you?" Lauren asks inching her hand towards the money on the table.

"Uh no," Arizona says.

Teddy's hand smacks Lauren's away from the money and Tricia laughs.

"Did she try to kiss you?" Trish asks.

"Oh yeah, she tried." Arizona says laughing as she picks up the shot glass and tosses the shot back.

* * *

Still laughing about the day's events, Arizona is getting ready for bed when her phone rings.

"Hello?" She says not looking to see who it was.

"Hey," Amelia replies, "am I interrupting something?"

"No, I'm just washing my face, you're on speaker," she explains. "What's up?"

"I was just wondering how your day was?" Amelia replies.

"It was good. I met with one of my students today and she tried to kiss me. Teddy and Lauren both warned me, but I was so sure that she was more interested in the medicine than me," Arizona says laughing.

"Wait, what?" Amelia stammers, "What did you do?"

"That got your attention?" Arizona teases.

"I guess I deserved that," Amelia remarks, her voice tight.

"No, you didn't. Look, I'm just a bit frustrated with this, whatever it is we're doing or not doing," Arizona replies.

Amelia interrupts her, "I just wanted to apologize for this weekend. Part of me really wants to do this, but the other part of me is scared that I'll just mess it up and screw up a good friendship."

"Amelia, I get that and I don't have the best track record either, but you need to figure out which you are more afraid of?" Arizona points out.

"It just feels like I've already screwed up our friendship," Amelia replies.

Picking up the phone and taking it off speaker, Arizona replies, "We can go back to friends if that's what you want, I care for you and I won't pursue this if it's not what you want." She pauses, then add, "It may be a little harder once I return to Seattle, but we'll figure it out."


	10. Chapter 10

_**A/N: It's snowing here and I remembered that Teddy loves snow!**_

* * *

"You look intense," Lauren says entering the lounge on a break between sessions.

"Hmm," Arizona responds without looking up from the journal article that she's writing.

Sitting down on the couch, Lauren puts up her feet and continues to stare at the blonde.

Teddy enters the room and sits beside Lauren on the couch and also stares at Arizona.

"Seriously?" Arizona asks finally turning to stare at them.

"What? We are patiently waiting for you to finish your article," Teddy counters.

"Where's Tricia?" Arizona asks.

"She went to get her vehicle and she's going to wait out front for us," Lauren explains.

"Okay, okay, I'm at a stopping point, let's go," Arizona says closing her laptop and grabbing her bag to start putting her things away.

"Yay!" Teddy says. "Tell Trish we're on our way!"

"I can't believe they cancelled the rest of the day, do you really think we'll get that much snow?" Arizona asks.

"It's already snowing," Lauren points out.

"Oh, it is?" Arizona replies, pulling her scarf out of her bag as she slips her notes and laptop inside.

"I love snow!" Teddy says as they head to their lockers to get their things.

"Do you get much snow in Seattle?" Lauren asks.

"Not really, it snows every winter, but usually just a few inches, once or twice a winter." Arizona explains.

"I haven't seen snow in three years, which is weird," Lauren replies.

"Aren't you from Minnesota?" Arizona asks, "Don't you go home for Christmas?"

"My sisters both live in Texas now that our parents are gone," Lauren explains.

"Oh," Arizona replies following her into locker room.

"Lauren, is that the only coat that you have with you?" Teddy asks as she slips on a lightweight NorthFace jacket.

"I'll be fine, we're just going out to the car," she replies.

"Teddy wants us to go sledding," Arizona informs the taller blonde.

"Sledding?" Lauren asks excitedly. "I'll go buy another coat, I love sledding."

"Great, now there are two of you," Arizona groans dramatically.

"Come on Robbins, you'll love it. Make you feel like a kid again!" Teddy says shutting her locker.

"I didn't go sledding as a kid, there wasn't much snow in San Juan," Arizona points out.

* * *

What are you looking at?" Callie asks entering the lounge to find Alex, Jo and Amelia looking at something on a tablet.

"Arizona and Teddy went sledding," Jo explains, as Callie joins them.

"Seriously? Arizona is sledding?" Callie asks, "I have to see this."

Alex scrolls through the photos of Teddy and Arizona's photos on Instagram, when Callie sees a familiar face, "Who is that?"

"Uh, I'm not sure," Alex says realizing exactly who it is.

Jo looks over and is about to say her name when Alex grabs her hand under the table, "Jo, didn't you say that you have a post op patient to check on?"

"Oh, OH! Right, yeah, I should go do that," she says standing up to leave.

"I just checked on her and she's fine." Callie says staring at her. Then turning to Alex, "did you know that she was there in DC with Arizona?" Callie asks.

"No, how would I know whose there, I haven't been there," he blurts out.

Amelia looks down, not wanting to make eye contact with Callie.

"Shepherd?" Callie notices her nervousness. "Spill it, what do you know?"

"I know, okay. She told me that Teddy had befriended her and it was awkward for her," Amelia replies carefully.

Callie scoffs, "It doesn't look awkward now," she remarks looking at a picture of the four doctors, Lauren's arm is around Arizona casually as she's obviously taking the photo with the blonde's phone.

The photo isn't making Amelia happy either, but she doesn't want any of them to know that, so she grabs her tablet and says, "Uh, I need to get going. Alex, let me know if you need me on that consult or if Edwards can cover it."

In her office, she pulls up Arizona's Instagram account and looks through the pictures again. Callie's right, they definitely look pretty damn cozy.

* * *

Sitting in Teddy's living room enjoying hot toddy's while they wait for pizza, the four doctors are still laughing about their afternoon of sledding.

"I can't believe that you never got a snow day?" Tricia replies, when she finds out that Arizona spent most of her childhood on military bases.

"We were in Germany a couple of times, but never during the winter," she explains. "Usually we were in San Juan or San Diego, or Fort Bragg."

"Oh my god that was fun, I love you guys! Look at this fun!," Teddy says pulling up her Instagram account on the tv to show them the photos that they took.

"Arizona, tag me in your pics and then we can see them all," Teddy asks.

"Oh, right." She says taking her phone out and pulling up her account. Noticing that Callie's liked the photo of her and Teddy, she exclaims, "Oh no!"

"What?" Teddy asks confused.

"Callie's seen these pictures," Arizona replies staring right at Lauren.

"Oh," Lauren says, "All of them?"

"I'm sure that she saw all of them, I posted them all at the same time," Arizona points out. "Crap, should I call her?"

"Arizona, she's your ex. You don't have to keep apologizing to her, especially now," Tricia points out. "It is what it is. You're having fun with friends in DC, she needs to deal with it."

Looking down at her phone, Arizona is surprised to see Amelia calling. "Hello?"

"Hey are you done playing in the snow?" Amelia asks playfully.

"Yeah, we're finally warm and dry, can you believe that we got that much snow since this morning?" Arizona asks getting up and going into the kitchen for a little privacy.

"I miss snows like that," Amelia says thoughtfully.

"So what's up?" Arizona asks, because Amelia calling her is still not normal.

"Uh, I just thought I'd warn you that Callie saw the photos and she's a little pissed," Amelia explains.

"Yeah, I didn't even think about that when I posted them," Arizona admits, "Well she's just going to have to deal with it. I'm done apologizing for everything."

"Do you have something more to apologize to her for?" Amelia asks awkwardly.

"Excuse me?" Arizona asks, annoyance evident in her tone, "Are you trying to ask me something Amelia?"

"This is hard for me Arizona," Amelia replies. "You look happy, her arm is around you and you look really happy in that photo," she points out.

"I was having fun, of course I looked happy," Arizona counters. "Look, the pizza is here and I'm not going to have this conversation with you right now. We can talk later, okay?"

"Was that Callie?" Teddy asks sliding in behind her to grab plates and napkins for the pizza.

"No, that was Amelia," she replies, "apparently Callie and Amelia both saw the pictures."

"Wow, it kinda sucks to be you right now," Teddy quips.

* * *

"No, no that's not it either. Look, this whole deal is just ridiculous." Arizona is now a little drunk and pissed off about Callie and Amelia being upset by the sledding photo, "I am single, my ex has a girlfriend and there's no one, no one who gets a say in who I'm seeing or not seeing or friends with."

"You go girl!" Teddy says, pouring more wine into her glass.

"So when are you calling Amelia back?" Tricia asks, trying not to smile.

"In the morning," Arizona replies, then realizes what Tricia just did. "Funny Trish, she's not my girlfriend though."

"Right, she just lives at your house, helps your ex with your daughter," Trish points out.

"I never should have told you guys that I slept with her, now you don't understand," Arizona counters.

"Oh we understand, that phone call from her earlier, that was not a roommate calling, that was a girlfriend," Teddy reminds her.

"Okay, no more talking about this." Arizona says trying to stand up. "I'm exhausted and I'm going to bed."

Lauren and Teddy both jump up to help her.

"Oh wait, I have an extra room at my place, one of you should come stay there. Teddy's couch sucks," she adds.

Lauren and Tricia look at each other.

"Lauren go, I'm staying here with Teddy. My wife would never let me hear the end of it if I stay alone in an apartment with Arizona," Trish jokes.

"But she's okay with you sharing an apartment with Lauren?" Arizona asks, then grimaces, "Oh sorry, Lauren."

"Too soon, Robbins. Too soon!" Lauren says dramatically. Then puts her hands on the blonde's shoulders and turns her around.

"I may have drank too much, I don't seem to have a filter right now," Arizona says as they head out the door.

"Uh, we noticed," Teddy replies. "Should I go and help you?"

"Nah, we'll be fine," Arizona says turning around too quickly and almost falling, "Oh, that's not good," she says grabbing her leg.

"Are you sure that you're okay?" Teddy asks.

"She'll be fine," Lauren says taking her arm and leading her down the hall.

* * *

"You should probably drink some water before bed," Lauren points out when they get into Arizona's place.

"You're right, but I really need to get this leg off," Arizona says heading down the hall.

Lauren watches her go and cocks her head, then decides to get water for both of them.

"Hey, I'm setting this glass of water by your bed," Lauren calls out before entering her bedroom.

"Thanks," Arizona replies from the bathroom.

Looking at the bed, Lauren notices that Arizona has removed her socket and her prosthetic.

"Hey, is everything alright?" she calls out.

"Uh, yeah. I just have a blister, I'm not used to walking in snow and apparently I didn't do it correctly", she admits.

"Do you need any help?" Lauren asks.

"No, it's fine," she replies.

"Okay, good night then," Lauren says turning to leave.

"Wait," Arizona says coming out of the bathroom.

Lauren turns around.

"Today was fun, I enjoyed spending time with you," she admits.

"I enjoyed it too. I'm just sorry that it created drama in your life in Seattle," Lauren says apologizing and walking over towards the blonde.

"I probably overreacted and I'm a little drunk," she explains. "And it's been awhile since I've had any drama in my life, so you know I'm, uh, out of practice," she jokes.

"Well, you probably won't believe this but my life is pretty much drama free," Lauren points out, "Except when I'm around you apparently."

Seeing Arizona sitting on the bed in her robe, Lauren bites her lip and turns away, "so good night then," she says.

"Lauren, wait..." Arizona says breathlessly.

Turning around, Lauren sees that she's slipped off her robe, so she goes to her and sits down and leans in and kisses her softly at first.

"Mmm," Arizona moans, deepening the kiss.

Reaching up Lauren sinks her hand into soft blonde curls and pushes her back gently onto the bed, kissing her harder.

Arizona slips her hand under Lauren's sweatshirt and begins to lift it off of her, when Lauren brings her hand down.

"Wait, no," she says pulling back. "Not like this. We've been drinking."

"Lauren," Arizona says reaching up and tucking a strand of hair behind her ear, "stay here then, with me."

"I can't. I-I'm just going to go to the other room," she says standing up to leave.

* * *

Laying in bed the next morning, Arizona feels like hell. Between the sledding and the drinking, she has a killer headache. Then the smell of coffee hits her, oh my god, Lauren's here. Then the rest of the night comes flooding back to her.

Carefully making her way to the kitchen to face the tall dark blonde, Arizona is prepared to apologize when instead of Lauren, she sees Teddy sitting there drinking coffee.

"Um, where's Lauren?" Arizona asks.

"The plow came early this morning and woke us up, they just left. Lauren mentioned that you had a blister and might need help, so here I am. Do you need help?" she asks.

"I need coffee and Tylenol right now," Arizona replies, wondering if Lauren said anything else to Teddy.

"Did Lauren check out your blister last night?" Teddy asks.

"No, she did not." Arizona replies taking a sip of coffee. Then glancing up to see Teddy's questioning look she adds, "Nothing happened, she slept in the guest room. I slept in my room."

"Okay, okay, I'm glad actually. I'm having a good time with all of you guys and I don't want it to get weird," Teddy replies.

* * *

"Hey come on in, we're just hanging out, watching a movie," Teddy says ushering Julie into the room.

"Oh no, what happened?" she asks when she sees Arizona's crutches.

"Just a little too much fun sledding yesterday," Arizona replies.

"Sorry I missed it, but we didn't get the afternoon off," Julie replies pouting. "What are you watching?"

"Teddy's never seen Orange Is The New Black," Arizona explains as Teddy sits back down.

"Oh, I have only seen the first part of season one," Julie says sitting down in the chair across from them.

"You should stay and watch it with us," Teddy replies.

* * *

A while later, Arizona's phone rings and she shows it to Teddy, who puts the show on pause

"Just a second," Arizona says into the phone. Then to Teddy she says, "Just help me up, you guys can keep watching the show," she says reaching for her crutches.

"Am I interrupting something?" Amelia asks.

"No, I'm just on crutches and they're watching a movie, so I wanted to leave the room to talk," she explains.

"Why are you on crutches? Did something happen?" Amelia questions.

"I just have a blister from sledding yesterday," Arizona replies. "It's no big deal and I'm just hanging out with Teddy and Julie watching tv."

"So Lauren's not there now," Amelia remarks.

"Is that why you called last night and today? You're jealous, you know that right?" Arizona asks.

"I'm aware, I'm also aware that I don't really have a right to be, so there's no need to point that out either," Amelia replies.

"Okay," Arizona isn't sure what to say next, so she decides to wait her out.

"I need to see you again, I want to figure this out and I need to see you to do that," she replies surprising the blonde.

"Okay, I'm coming to Seattle in a few weeks to get Sofia, maybe you don't hide from me this time?"

"What if I come out there on Friday?" Amelia asks.

Shocked Arizona doesn't say anything for a minute.

"You don't want to see me?" Amelia asks.

"It's not that I don't want to see you, I just didn't expect that, give me a minute, okay?" Arizona replies.

"What is it you need to think about?" Amelia asks. "You either want to see me or you don't."

"Amelia, I'm just a little confused about everything," Arizona admits.

"Me too, that's why I want to see you," she explains. "Owen called me."

"Is he there in Seattle?" Arizona asks. More confused now.

"No, he's not coming back to Seattle," Amelia replies. "He's moving to San Antonio to work for MedComm."

"Oh, that's probably for the best. What with everything that happened with Riggs," she replies.

"He asked me to move there," Amelia adds.

"Wait, he what?" Arizona stammers, now even more confused. "What did you say?"

"I told him no. I'm not in love with him Arizona," she says, then adds softly, "but I might be with you."


	11. Chapter 11

_**A/N: Hope you've enjoyed these two chapters, sadly I'm off to work,but hoping to post another one tomorrow, so pace yourselves...**_

* * *

"Lauren and I kissed last night and we would have had sex, but she stopped us," Arizona confesses.

"Oh," Teddy replies, "You're going to talk about this, finally."

"What do you mean finally?" Arizona asks.

"I knew something was up, all day yesterday you were distracted," she points out.

"How did everything get so damn complicated? Don't you remember back in Seattle when my life was simple?" Arizona asks thoughtfully.

"Oh I remember, your girlfriend got pregnant by her best friend after you dumped her at the airport to go to Africa, you came back to her and then proposed and got hit by a truck. Yeah, that was a lot less complicated," Teddy quips.

"But then we got married and everything was great, don't you remember it being great?" Arizona asks.

"I do remember that, but it was still complicated, you and Mark not getting along, then getting along too well," Teddy reminds her.

"Okay, you're right. It was complicated, but not like this," she admits. "I'm glad that I didn't have sex with Lauren, but I'm surprised. Why do you think she did that?"

"If I had to guess, I'd say that she didn't want to do it because she was afraid that you'd regret it," Teddy points out.

"Hmm," Arizona says thinking that over. "Should I apologize to her? I initiated it."

"That's between the two of you, just please don't let it be weird, then it's weird for all of us," Teddy remarks.

"Amelia's coming on Friday," Arizona blurts out.

"Wow, okay I didn't see that coming," Teddy replies.

"She thinks that she's in love with me and wants to see me," she explains.

"Well, that's good that she's not avoiding you any longer." Teddy asks concerned.

"I guess that I need to see her too," Arizona admits, then adds, "She said that she needs to see me and may be in love with me," Arizona replies.

"Whoa, how do you feel about that?" Teddy asks.

Before she can answer her phone buzzes and a picture of Sofia fills the screen.

Smiling, Arizona picks up the phone, "Hey little miss!" she says answering.

"Hi Momma," Sofia exclaims, "Can I see the snow?"

Arizona looks over at Teddy, "Hold on, let me have Teddy take you to the window to show you the snow," she replies handing the phone to Teddy.

"Hey Sofia! We have a lot of snow here," Teddy says as she walks to the window with the phone. "Look."

"Wow, that's a lot of snow," Callie remarks, "Uh good to see you Teddy, but what's going on?"

Teddy walks back over to the couch and hands the phone to Arizona, "I'm fine, Calliope. I just got a blister from sledding the other day," she admits.

"Teddy?" Callie says.

"It really looks good, she's fine Cal," Teddy replies shaking her head at Callie's concern.

* * *

"How do you do that?" Teddy asks later after the phone call.

"What?" Arizona asks.

"Callie still cares about you a great deal, you know that right?" Teddy asks.

"Yes, and I still care for her too," Arizona replies.

"Lauren cares too or she would have slept with you the other night, you realize that, right?" Teddy points out.

"Well, that's probably true. Okay, so what are you asking me?" Arizona asks confused.

"And then there's Amelia, so how do you get this many people to care for you at one time?" Teddy asks. "I'm lucky to have one, you have three."

"Honestly, I have no idea. I've spent the last two years alone, wondering if I'd ever find someone else or if I'd just pine for Callie forever." Arizona admits. "I finally decide to get over her and now here I am, a confused mess."

* * *

"Thank you," Arizona says handing Lauren a cup of coffee the next morning.

Surprised, Lauren smiles at her with relief. "Well, I couldn't stand to have you look at me with regret again," she admits.

"You deserve more than being someone's regret Lauren," Arizona replies. "Maybe we could have dinner tomorrow night?"

"Really?" Lauren asks surprised. "Uh, you bought last time, so it's my turn."

"No, I don't think that you understand, I'm asking you out on a date," Arizona explains, "does that change your answer?"

"It definitely does not change my answer, but I am surprised," she admits.

"Me too. But I want to know why I'm drawn to you and avoiding you doesn't answer that question," she replies before flashing a smile and walking away.

"You have coffee already?" Tricia asks coming up behind her.

"Yeah, Arizona bought it for me and just asked me out to dinner," Lauren explains, still dazed by the exchange.

"Okay, well that's really not how you thought that would go, good job!" Trish says patting her on the back.

* * *

"Um, you asked Lauren out on a date?" Teddy asks later that day when she runs into Arizona.

"She told you?" Arizona asks making a face.

"No Trish told me," Teddy replies, "I don't understand, is Amelia not coming on Friday?"

"She's still coming, I just need to understand how I feel about Lauren before I see Amelia again," Arizona explains.

"But you didn't tell Lauren that yet," Teddy asks, "but you will, right?"

"Of course, I will." Arizona replies. "Teddy, this is me taking control of this situation."

"Okay, I just don't want anyone to get hurt," Teddy reminds her. "And that includes you."

* * *

"Casual dinner or not so casual dinner?" Lauren texts Arizona that night.

"Not so casual, but it is winter!" Arizona replies.

Lauren laughs when she reads the text.

"Where are we going?" she asks.

"Not telling, you'll just have to wait and find out. Be ready at 7," Arizona replies.

* * *

"Hey Arizona," Trish says opening the door. "Oh is it snowing again? Maybe you guys should take my SUV, just in case."

"The weather report says just an inch," Arizona replies.

"Oh, it's snowing?" Lauren asks when she notices Arizona's wet hair.

"Big fluffy flakes, it's beautiful," Arizona replies smiling at them.

"Maybe I should drive," Lauren replies, "You're not used to driving in this weather."

"True, but I made it over here just fine." Arizona points out.

"Okay, but if it's bad, I'm driving back," Lauren says slipping her coat on.

"If it's too bad, you call me and I'll come get you." Trish adds.

"Yes Mom," Lauren replies giving her friend a quick hug goodbye.

* * *

"Thank you for dinner and everything," Lauren says nervously as Arizona parks the car in front of the townhouse.

Unfastening her seatbelt, Arizona turns to face her, "You're welcome."

Lauren unfastens her own seatbelt and then reaches out to touch Arizona's hand, "Do you want to come in? I swear Trish will be in her room," she adds laughing.

"I would love to come in, but I'm not going to," Arizona says leaning forward and kisses her lightly on the cheek.

"What does that mean exactly?" Lauren asks.

"I need to be upfront with you, I wanted to go out with you because I'm really attracted to you and I wanted to spend time with you alone for a change." Arizona explains.

"But..." Lauren interjects.

"But I have feelings for Amelia and I need to figure things out with her, she's, uh, coming here on Friday." Arizona replies.

"I see. So this was, what exactly?" Lauren asks confused.

"This was us on a date," Arizona replies.

"Hmm, okay so if I wanted to go out with you again, would you go out with me?" Lauren asks.

"Yes, but Amelia is still visiting on Friday and staying with me, so do you really want to do that?" Arizona questions.

"If you are serious about this, then yes. I want to go out again, how about Thursday?" Lauren asks.

"Okay," Arizona replies nervously.

Smiling, Lauren leans in and kisses her. "I'll see you tomorrow," she says getting out of the car and disappearing into the house.

* * *

"How was your date?" Teddy asks the next morning.

"It was good, really good. We're going out again tomorrow night," Arizona replies.

"You didn't tell her?" Teddy blurts out.

"I did tell her! Then she asked me out," Arizona explains.

"Oh, really?" Teddy replies. "Hey do you want to get lunch today?"

"No, I have to go mail off Sofia's Valentine's gift," Arizona replies. "Oh no, this weekend is Valentine's weekend."

"Ha! No wonder Amelia wanted to visit this weekend!" Teddy says laughing, "Oh, she's good. She's really good."

* * *

"Hi," Arizona says entering the house. "Sorry that I couldn't pick you up at the airport."

Amelia looks at her shyly, nervous and unsure of herself.

Setting her things on the chair by the door, Arizona crosses the room and pulls her into an embrace.

Amelia pulls back, feeling more confident, she leans in and kisses her. "Hi," she replies.

Taking her hand, Arizona leads her over to the couch to sit down, then leans in and kisses her.

Amelia relaxes finally and smiles at her. "I don't think I realized how nervous I was to see you again," she admits.

"I'm sorry about flaking out on you, I just feel so much, it's overwhelming. But then you weren't there and I have all these feelings and I don't know what to do with them," she says leaning in to kiss her again.

"I'm glad that you're here," Arizona replies leaning back on the couch and taking her hand again.

"Why don't we stay in tonight? I'll cook, I picked up a few things from the market down the street," she offers.

"Oh are you sure you feel like cooking?" Arizona asks.

"Yes, it's fine, I love to cook, so go shower, change, get comfortable," Amelia says shooing her off the couch.

* * *

In the shower Arizona takes a deep breath. She had meant to talk to Amelia about Lauren right away but seeing how nervous the brunette was, she didn't want to freak her out. Now she realizes that she has to tell her over dinner, she doesn't want to begin a relationship without being upfront about everything.

Putting on lotion and slipping on yoga pants and long sleeve t-shirt, Arizona heads out into the kitchen.

"Are you hungry yet?" Amelia asks, "because this can wait."

"I'm not that hungry, let's talk first. Tell me what's going on at the hospital." Arizona says sitting down at the kitchen counter.

Amelia comes around and sits beside her. "Why don't you tell me what's going on here first?"

"Oh right," she says nervously, then taking a breath, she continues, "I've gone out with Lauren a few times, after the sledding, I just realized that I kind of have feelings for her and since you were coming to visit I wanted to see her and try to figure that out first."

Amelia waits patiently for her to continue.

"We didn't have sex. But I'm done, she knows that you're here and I'm with you. It's important to me that you know everything. I'm not playing a game here. I'm just trying to understand everything that I'm feeling. It's confusing," Arizona says trying to explain it.

Amelia nods. She's relieved actually.

"Thank you for telling me. I was afraid that I had blown it and you two were together. I didn't think you'd let me come out here, if that were true," Amelia admits. "But after hearing Callie ranting about Lauren, I was worried."

"Ah, that's why you called me." Arizona gets it now. Pulling Amelia's hands into her lap, Arizona looks deep into her eyes, "Can we just start new tonight? I mean, obviously we're not going to date, since we already know each other and we're roommates, but can we just take it slow and get to know each other?" She asks.

Nodding yes, Amelia leans in and presses her lips to Arizona's. "I really, really like kissing you, though, can there be kissing?" She asks playfully.

"Mmm, lots of kissing. Kissing is good," Arizona replies smiling into her kisses.


	12. Chapter 12

_**A/N: short one today, but on track to get at least one a day posted the next few days!**_

* * *

"What do you have there?" Arizona asks when Amelia returns from her morning run with a small packet of papers.

"Uh, so I ran into Julie, not literally, and she invited me to presentation next month at NIH," Amelia explains, setting the packet down and greeting the blonde with a kiss.

"Interesting, so how did she know that you were here or was she just sitting on the corner waiting for Neurosurgeons to run by?" Arizona jokes.

Amelia's eyes light up and a smile spreads across her face, "Robbins. You. are. jealous.", she says poking the blonde's chest playfully.

"No, I don't do jealous. I just, I'm confused is all," Arizona stammers a bit trying to explain.

"Confused, hmm." Amelia says stepping back and stripping off her wind shirt and pants. "I like that you're a little jealous, it means you're into me," she says playfully.

"If that wasn't obvious last night..." Arizona replies teasingly, "then I really need to work on my technique," she adds as she wraps her arms around the brunette and kisses her.

"Hmm," Amelia moans into the kiss. "I, uh, I need a shower, join me?"

"I may have told Teddy that we'd meet her for lunch in an hour," Arizona admits cringing.

"That's plenty of time," Amelia replies tearing off her running shirt and walking away from the blonde.

"This is not going slow Shepherd," Arizona calls after her, as she picks up her phone to text Teddy that they'll be a little late.

* * *

"I'm just saying that not everyone needs to know everything about me," Arizona counters.

"You're the one who is out. You're the lesbian, why don't you want people to know that we're together?" Amelia asks.

"We talked about this last night Amelia, you agreed that we should go slow. And now you're just plunging right into this. Have you forgotten that horrible rumor mill of hospital that we work at?" Arizona asks.

"You don't want anyone in Seattle to know. That's what this is about." Amelia replies angrily.

"Amelia, are you seriously ready for that kind of scrutiny into our relationship? You want Meredith and Callie questioning this now?" Arizona asks. "Because they will, believe me, they will."

"I don't care about them or what they think, all I care about is you and what you think." Amelia replies softly, turning around to face her.

Placing her hands over her face, Arizona looks down for a minute to collect her thoughts. Why are they already arguing about this, she wonders.

"Amelia, we need to slow down. We're skipping steps here. We haven't even gone out one time as a couple," Arizona points out to her.

"Okay, well tonight we're going out as a couple. I made dinner reservations for 8 tonight while you were driving us to lunch." Amelia counters confidently.

* * *

La Panetteria is just a few blocks away from the townhouse and Harlings is on the way, so they decide to stop for a drink on their way to dinner.

"Oh god, no, no," Arizona says when they enter Harlings. Right in front of the stage is a group of surgeons from the training class and Michelle O'Connell looks up right as they enter.

"What?" Amelia whispers as Arizona turns away from the room and smiles sheepishly. Then begins talking rapidly, "Okay, so the woman, the young woman, walking towards us right now is my best student and she..."

"Hello Michelle," Arizona says greeting her as she approaches.

"Hello Dr Robbins, I didn't know that you came out to Harlings?" Michelle replies eyeing Amelia curiously.

"Yes, my friend Amelia is in town and we just stopped in for a drink on our way to dinner, if you'll excuse us?" Arizona replies politely and pulls Amelia's arm as she heads to the bar.

"Okay, so she's a lesbian," Amelia teases, "a hot, hot young lesbian. Wow, Robbins, you have a lot going on out here."

"Shut it, Shepherd, she's my student and may be the best candidate I've seen so far for the Fetal Surgery fellowship," Arizona replies honestly.

"But lucky for me she's in the military," Amelia jokes, still appraising the young woman's assets.

"She's stationed in Tacoma," Arizona replies laughing.

"Oh no," Amelia fakes concern, then leans in and kisses the blonde.

Arizona pulls back surprised but smiles, "Staking your territory Shepherd?" she asks softly.

"Something like that," Amelia says sliding her hand up Arizona's leg to rest it on her thigh.

* * *

"Hmm, I enjoyed this evening," Arizona says as they climb out of the Uber car, "Would you like to come up?" she asks playfully.

"I thought you'd never ask," Amelia replies taking her hand and pulling her in for a kiss.

Arizona pulls back and they head inside to the elevator. They are laughing arms wrapped around each other when the elevator opens and Julie steps out. She nods to them and continues past.

Entering the elevator, Amelia bursts out laughing. "We're idiots, you know that right?"

"I'm sorry. Okay, so from here on out, it just is what it is and if people find out, we deal with it, okay?" Arizona says staring down into her smiling dark blue eyes.

"That's all I was saying," Amelia replies still laughing to herself.

"Hmm," Arizona says to herself, enjoying the feel of Amelia's body pressed close to her own.

* * *

The next morning, Arizona wakes up early and slips out of bed to let Amelia sleep in. The blonde quietly makes coffee and then pulls up the journal article that she's been working on to review it. Apparently, she forgot to close out of the Skype app yesterday morning when she talked to Alex, now its flashing, so she clicks over to it.

"Happy Valentine's Day Momma!" Sofia exclaims when Arizona's face fills the screen.

"Happy Valentine's Day Sofia!" Arizona replies, as her daughter's face beams back at her.

"Momma, is there still snow there?" Sofia asks.

"Yes, but not as much. It's all melting," Arizona replies.

"Now what are you and Mami doing today?" Arizona asks.

"We're going to the Aquarium!" Sofia exclaims and then runs off screen.

"Uh, hey," Callie says turning the laptop towards her. "I got her that whale t-shirt that she's been wanting and I think she went to get it to show you, but I'm not sure," Callie says looking down the hall.

"How was your weekend? Doing anything special for Valentine's?" Arizona asks. She knows that Callie and Penny broke up, but she also knows her ex is the queen of giving people extra chances.

"Uh, no just spending time with Sofia. How about you? Are you working on a Sunday morning?" Callie asks.

"Just reviewing the journal article that I've been writing on Fetal Valvuloplasty," Arizona explains.

"I guess that's fitting for Valentine's Day," Callie jokes.

"Arizona, where'd you go..." Amelia asks in a sleepy voice from the hallway.

"Uh, Callie hold on," Arizona says quickly turning the laptop away and turning around to face the brunette. "It's Sofia and Callie, just uh, give me a minute, okay?" she asks softly.

Amelia shoots her a little pouty face and turns back around to the bedroom.

Pulling the computer back around, Sofia is back wearing the whale t-shirt and Callie is telling her that they need to finish the call.

"Oh wow, that's an awesome t-shirt Sof!" Arizona replies excitedly.

"Momma, when do I get to see you again?" Sofia asks.

"Two more weeks, just look at your calendar and mark off the days, remember little miss?" Arizona reminds her.

They chat a few more minutes before Callie interrupts.

"Okay, Sofia we should let Momma go now," she reminds the little girl, then turning back to the screen she adds, "so we're going to let you get back to... uh, your morning," Callie says cutting the call short.

* * *

"I'm sorry, I heard voices and thought it was a video, I didn't even think about you being on the phone with Callie and Sofia this early," Amelia says when Arizona returns to the bedroom.

"It okay, I was just working on my journal article and letting you sleep in," she says climbing back into bed beside her, "I must have left Skype open yesterday and they just beeped in."

Curling up to the blonde, Amelia sighs contentedly. She hasn't felt this comfortable with anyone in a long time. She had moments with Owen, but they never got any traction in their relationship.

"Did she say anything?" Amelia asks.

"No, I doubt that she heard what you said or even enough to recognize your voice. I think she was just shocked that I wasn't alone," Arizona points out. "The last few Valentine's Days I've been the one alone with Sofia," she adds.

* * *

"Hey Callie," Meredith says glancing up at the ortho surgeon as she approaches the desk.

"Uh, so where's Amelia today?" Callie asks.

"I have no idea, did you check the OR board?" Meredith asks.

"No, because she has the day off and I was just wondering if you knew why she's been off since Friday. Did she uh, go somewhere?" Callie asks curiously.

"You know that Amelia and I are not talking right now Callie, why are you asking me? You should ask Edwards," Meredith points out.

"Okay," Callie says turning to go.

"Wait, why are you asking?" Meredith sets the chart down that she was updating.

Callie reaches out and grabs her sleeve and pulls her into the nearest supply room.

"Don't say anything to anyone, but Sofia and I were talking to Arizona yesterday morning and someone was there. A woman's voice interrupted us," Callie explains.

"Okay, but there are a lot of women in DC, why would you think that it was Amelia?" Meredith points out not following.

"One, Arizona doesn't do long distance relationships. Two, when I was ranting about Lauren being in that photo a few weeks ago, Amelia looked like someone punched her in the gut. Three, Amelia's out of town on Valentine's weekend." Callie says outlining her case.

"Oh," Meredith replies taking that all into consideration. "But you're forgetting that Amelia doesn't play for your team," she points out.

"Uh, how do you know that?" Callie asks. "I dated a lot of men before I 'played' for this team," she counters.


	13. Chapter 13

Amelia enters the apartment and immediately feels that something is different. She goes to the fridge and grabs a sparkling water and then hears music coming from Arizona's room.

Softly walking down the hall with a smile on her face, she shakes her head, "You are full of surprises," she says amused.

"Hmm, you're home..." Arizona purrs coming over to greet the brunette.

"And you are home a day early!" Amelia remarks happily, kissing her hello.

"I am," she replies, then she asks, "So, has it been weird?"

"It's been weird. I don't why Owen would have told Meredith that I was moving to San Antonio with him," Amelia says shaking her head and taking another sip of water. "You know that I didn't lead him on, right?" Amelia asks sitting down on the bed with her.

"Yes, I know that," Arizona replies wrapping an arm around her.

Amelia leans into her and nuzzles her neck, "I missed you," she says softly.

"Mmm, I missed you too," Arizona replies slipping her hand under her chin and pulling her face up to kiss her.

The kiss is interrupted by the blonde's stomach rumbling.

"Uh, have you not eaten today?" Amelia asks.

"I had a smoothie this morning and a salad on the plane," Arizona replies.

"Okay, we should go eat because there's no food here," Amelia admits laughing.

"Let's go to Joe's," Arizona says mischievously.

"Ah, so you want to start a new rumor," Amelia teases.

"Two roommates having dinner, what's there to gossip about?" She asks.

"Ah, have you seen the way you look at me?" Amelia asks playfully.

* * *

"Okay, so apparently you were right about Amelia and Arizona," Meredith says the next morning.

"Arizona's home?" Callie asks. "I thought she was flying back this afternoon."

"Oh, she's home alright. I met Alex at Joe's after work and you should have seen them walk in together," Meredith explains.

"I can't believe that she didn't tell me that she was coming back early," Callie replies pulling her phone out of her pocket to check her messages.

"Callie, did you not hear what I said? I think you're right about them," Meredith repeats.

"I'll need to see this myself to believe it," Callie replies.

"Good morning Calliope," Arizona says coming up behind the two surgeons.

"Oh hey Arizona," Callie says turning around to see the blonde.

"I wrapped up early this week and was able to change my flight at the last minute, I was going to surprise Sofia by picking her up from school today, is that okay with you?" she asks.

"Uh, yeah, she'll love that," Callie replies. Unable to not notice that Arizona seems genuinely happy.

"Great thanks!" Arizona says before walking away.

"Wow, she's got her mojo back or something," Meredith remarks watching the blonde walk away.

"Yeah," Callie replies, a little sadly. It's not that she doesn't want her ex to be happy, she just isn't used to someone else being the source of that happiness.

* * *

Arizona and Amelia are having lunch in the hospital cafeteria and they can't help noticing everyone noticing them.

"Okay, so this is annoying as hell," Amelia says looking around.

"Yeah, you'll get used to it," Arizona replies taking a sip of her drink.

"Or they'll have to get used to it," Amelia says leaning over and kissing the blonde on the lips.

"Well, okay then," Arizona replies setting her drink down. "You really just did that?"

"I did. Now they actually have something to talk about," she explains laughing.

"Hey, can you do a consult while you're here today?" Alex asks sitting down at their table.

"Uh, sure," Arizona says, still laughing about Amelia kissing her in the cafeteria.

"What's so funny?" He asks looking from one to the other.

"Uh, so Amelia just kissed me and everyone is sort of freaking out and you just sat down oblivious to the commotion," Arizona informs him.

"Oh, so you guys are together now?" he asks. "Cool."

Amelia looks over at Arizona amused by this response.

"I told you, it's not a big deal," Arizona replies.

"Except that I just won $50 from Jackson, I totally called this." Alex replies smugly.

"Wait, how did you even know to call this?" Arizona asks.

"Your last visit, you were all pouty about Amelia getting called in," he points out, "You weren't just disappointed, you were grumpy about it. I figured there was more to it."

"I wasn't grumpy about it, she was avoiding me and I was pissed," Arizona counters.

"Yeah, that helps your case, what are you trying to prove again?" he asks sarcastically.

Amelia busts out laughing and Arizona glares at her, "You were an ass that weekend, it's not funny," she points out.

"It's kind of funny," Amelia says amused. "Okay, you guys discuss your consult, I've got an aneurism to clip."

As Amelia stands up, Arizona pulls on her lab coat, so she bends down and gives her a kiss goodbye.

"Mmm, just in case anyone missed the first one, eh?" Amelia says smiling into the kiss.

"Okay, so it's true?" Callie says approaching the table.

"If you're referring to Amelia and I seeing each other, then yes, that rumor is true," Arizona replies smiling.

"Why didn't you tell me?" Callie asks still standing over the table.

"Calliope, sit down, you're making a scene," Arizona points out.

Callie looks around, then sinks down into a chair at the table.

"What happened with her and Owen?" Callie asks.

"You'd have to ask her that," Arizona says looking back over to Alex.

Callie stews a moment and Arizona and Alex start discussing the case.

"How long?" Callie asks interrupting them.

"How long what?" Arizona replies.

"How long have you two been together?" Callie asks, as Alex glares at her.

"It just sort of evolved over the last few months, but technically, just a few weeks," Arizona admits.

"Torres, are you done processing yet? We are discussing a case here," Alex grumbles.

"Karev, just give me a minute here," Callie grumbles back.

"Calliope, I get that you're a bit surprised and I did intend to tell you this weekend, I just didn't expect there to be rumors already," Arizona explains.

"I knew that it was her that morning, I just knew it," Callie replies.

"Torres, give it a break. You've been dating, now she's dating. You guys have been broken up for a while now, what's the big deal?" Alex asks annoyed by her tone.

"It's not big deal that she's dating, it's a big deal who she's dating," Callie retorts.

"And why is that?" Alex asks.

"Yeah, why is that?" Arizona asks.

"Uh, because she... because Amelia Shepherd isn't bisexual," Callie finally spits out.

"Okay," Alex says laughing, "Then what is she Arizona-sexual?" he retorts.

"Calliope, I expected this from people, but not from you," Arizona replies standing up. "Alex, I'll be in my office, come find me when you're ready," she says before turning to leave.

"What was that about?" Meredith asks sitting down at the table and looking from Alex to Callie.

"Torres here, is an idiot," Alex replies bluntly.

"What did you say to her Callie?" Meredith asks.

"Amelia kissed her right here in the cafeteria," Callie explains, "In front of everyone, I was standing right here."

"Okay, so it's true then. They are together," Meredith says, picking up her fork.

"Torres tell her what you just said," Alex says nudging her arm with his elbow.

Meredith sets her fork down and narrows her eyes at the brunette waiting for the explanation.

"Okay, okay I was out of line, I shouldn't have said that Amelia isn't bisexual," Callie replies.

"Wait, you said that?" Meredith asks, more than a little shocked, since Callie is rather proud of it herself.

"I know, I know, I should go apologize to Arizona. I'm just confused about this. I never expected this, I thought they were just friends, you know?" Callie says trying to explain.

"See and you were freaking out over Lauren Boswell for nothing," Alex spits out before leaving.

* * *

"Hey do you have a minute?" Callie says when Arizona drops Sofia off that evening.

"Sure," Arizona replies, crossing her arms and leaning against the door.

Callie notes the body language, so she begins by apologizing.

"I was out of line today at lunch, I'm sorry. This whole thing just caught me off guard, we all thought Amelia was going to be with Owen, then all of the sudden she's with you." Callie replies hoping to explain her reaction.

"Okay, but that's not really true, you said that you thought she was at my place Valentine's weekend. And you knew that whatever was between Amelia and Owen was over when he left Seattle, so all you're really saying is that you're surprised that we're actually seeing each other," Arizona says pointedly.

Callie bites her lip. That is true and she knows it. "Okay, that's probably true. But it is true that I didn't know Amelia dated women," she adds.

"Right, but you know me. And you know that I don't date newborn lesbians." Arizona counters.

"Ah, right. Except you do make exceptions," Callie points out.

"Calliope, let's just forget about this and move on. I don't think either of us want to rehash the past," Arizona says standing up. "So I accept your apology and I'll be back tomorrow evening to pick her up."

"So does Sofia know about you and Amelia?" Callie asks nervously.

"Not yet, I don't see any reason to tell her just yet. It's still new, especially since I'm in DC right now," Arizona explains.

* * *

"Uh, so Callie did this thing today," Amelia says when Arizona returns from dropping off Sofia.

"Oh god, I'm sorry..." Arizona says as she rushes over to the couch to apologize.

"You don't even know what I'm going to say," Amelia points out amused.

"Well, I'm sure it was bad, she just apologized to me when I dropped Sofia off," Arizona explains.

"No, it wasn't bad. I was leaving recovery and there were two nurses talking about me, not so nicely and they hadn't seen me yet and I was still processing what they were saying, when Callie just walks right up to them and shuts them down.

"She did that?" Arizona replies a bit amazed.

"She did that. Then she turned to me and said that I didn't deserve it and she'd have Bailey put out a sensitivity memo." Amelia adds.

* * *

"You should have seen the looks on people's faces when she kissed me in that cafeteria Teddy," Arizona and Teddy are driving out to have dinner with Sofia and Arizona's parents.

"I can just imagine," Teddy replies laughing. "Hey, can I ask you why you never mentioned that Amelia dated Owen?"

"You talked to Owen?" Arizona asks.

"Yeah, he's hurt and confused that the two of you are together," Teddy explains, "apparently he thought they were a thing."

"He needs to talk to her about that, not you," Arizona points out.

"True, so they weren't dating when you two started..." Teddy's thought trails because she realizes what it sounds like she's asking.

Arizona glares at her a moment, "Teddy, I get that he's hurt or whatever, but you need to understand, he left Seattle. No one even knew where he was for weeks. He bailed on whatever it was they had, and eventually she moved on."

"Not exactly how he explains it, which isn't surprising," Teddy remarks sarcastically. "So you two really didn't have anything going on until she was here in January?"

Arizona grimaces a bit and clears her throat nervously.

"Wait, there was something?" Teddy blurts out, "And you didn't tell me?"

"Teddy, she's always flirted with me. I didn't think anything about it until after she moved in to my place, then her flirting seemed different, more direct and a bit more innuendo," Arizona explains. "By the time she came out here and then just showed up at my place, we had a bit of tension between us."

"Ohh, that sounds hot, but why were you ignoring her that night and talking to Lauren instead?" Teddy asks.

"I wasn't, I was trying to keep my distance. She had an emotional week and I thought she needed more time, but then she started kissing Julie and I didn't want her to do that and knew that Julie didn't know that, so I got her out of there." Arizona explains.

"And into your bed!" Teddy teases.

"Actually, she got me into her bed," Arizona replies laughing.

* * *

"Hold on Teddy, I just got a weird page," Arizona replies pulling out her phone. "Arizona Robbins," she says when the call connects.

"Dr Robbins, this is Liz Shepherd, I'm in town at a conference at NIH. Are you free for dinner tonight?" Liz asks.

"Uh, okay, should I pick you up? Where are you staying?" Arizona asks completely shocked that Amelia's sister would contact her out of the blue like this. They work out the details and Arizona hangs up the phone and turns back to Teddy.

"Who was that?" Teddy asks.

"That was Liz Shepherd, Amelia's sister," Arizona replies, "She's here and wants to meet for dinner tonight."

"Have you met her before?" Teddy asks.

"Not really." Arizona says. "Should I tell Amelia? Or wait and see what she wants?"

"You don't want Amelia to react to something that hasn't happened yet. This is the sister that she's close to, right?" Teddy points out.

"Yes, she probably just wants to get to know me, or something," Arizona counters.


	14. Chapter 14

"Thank you for agreeing to have dinner with me tonight," Liz says once she is settled into the car.

"Well, I have to admit that I was a bit surprised that you called since we haven't really met before," Arizona replies nervously. "I'm going to assume that Amelia doesn't know about this?" she asks.

"Uh, no. She doesn't and thank you for not telling her yet," Liz replies.

* * *

After getting to know each other a bit and ordering their meals, Liz smiles at the blonde and begins speaking.

"Arizona, I don't know how well that you know my sister. Amelia has told me a little bit about you and your family, of course I know Callie and I already knew about the plane crash; can I assume that she has shared a bit of her history with you," Liz asks.

"Yes, Liz. Amelia has told me about your father's death and losing Ryan and the baby; I know about her struggles, but she's strong, she's one of the strongest women that I know." Arizona replies.

"Good, I'm relieved that she's told you about those things, I know it's hard for her to open up, so that makes me feel better that she's being honest and open with you." Liz replies taking a sip of her wine. "But Arizona, she's struggling with Derek's death, really struggling and I'm afraid that you may be blinded by your own losses and not realize how badly she's really doing right now."

"I know that she has struggled with Derek's death, but she seems to be doing much better, she has even called me to talk when she's upset," Arizona explains.

"Hmm, well that is encouraging. But Arizona she has this pattern, it's almost like she's addicted to new relationships. My concern is that she's using your relationship to distract her from her grief. Amy is one of the most sensitive people I know, her sensitivity is the basis of her addiction, she prefers to numb her pain instead of feel it. She used to fall into bed with friends, but now challenging almost impossible surgeries seem to be her drug of choice." Liz explains.

Arizona sits stunned by that comment, but fortunately, the food arrives, so she doesn't respond, instead she focuses on her meal and Liz watches her carefully for a few minutes before resuming the conversation.

"She really likes you," Liz remarks. "She doesn't always talk about her relationships with me, but you she has talked about."

"But you think she's using me to avoid her grief over Derek?" Arizona asks confused.

"Not exactly, but she doesn't have the best track record with relationships and I wanted you to know that about her," Liz explains.

"How do you know that I am any better with relationships?" Arizona asks.

"I don't, it's just that you were married and have a child, which shows a level of commitment that Amy has yet to reach. Look I know that I'm probably out of line here, but I want her to be happy and right now, your relationship makes her happy, so I want this to workout and Amy, well, Amy needs this to workout." Liz replies reaching over and squeezing the blonde's hand. "It's just that for this to work, you need to know what you're up against. She's my little sister, Arizona and I love her so much, but she can be really hard to love a lot of the time."

"I don't like that we did this behind her back, if she finds out she will be upset with both of us," Arizona points out.

"Then tell her that we met, tell her I approached you and introduced myself and we had coffee, which is true by the way, we did have coffee," Liz points out.

The waiter brings the check and Liz slips her card on it and hands it right back to him.

"On me, please. You were gracious enough to join me," she remarks.

"She's going to be back in DC for a presentation next month. Would you be available to come down and have dinner with us, so she can introduce us properly?" Arizona asks.

"A chance to see my little sister happy? I wouldn't miss it," Liz replies as they stand up to leave.

* * *

"How was dinner last night?" Teddy asks as they walk into the hospital the next morning.

"I'm still trying to process everything. I know that she meant well, but she managed to illuminate a couple of things about this relationship that I was already concerned about. Now I'm a little freaked out about them, well more than I was before anyway." Arizona replies.

"We should have lunch and talk it through," Teddy suggests.

"No, today I'm having lunch with my students. The surgeries are tomorrow, so we're having a working lunch to review everything before their afternoon practice surgeries in the skills lab." Arizona explains.

"Okay, well you know where I am when you're ready to talk," Teddy replies, slipping an arm around her waist and giving her a quick squeeze.

* * *

"Hey stranger," Lauren quips when Arizona enters the lounge later that morning.

"How are you?" She asks pouring herself a cup of coffee.

"I'm good. I haven't seen you in over a week, I hope that you're not avoiding me," Lauren asks.

"No, I'm not. I finished writing the article, but I can't seem to finish editing it," Arizona explains.

"Send it to me and let me review it," she offers.

"That's nice of you to offer, but you don't have to do that," Arizona replies.

"Arizona, I like you. I want us to be friends or at least colleagues, so please I want to help you and I liked learning the procedure," Lauren confesses.

Arizona pauses to think about that. "You know, we are doing practice surgeries today and then we have actual surgeries the rest of the week," Arizona replies, "Come by and observe if you have time."

"Wow, you're ahead of all the other groups, our surgeries aren't until next week," Lauren points out.

"Well, we found three pregnant women who fit our criteria, so we had a tight time line," Arizona explains.

* * *

"Hi," Arizona says breathlessly into the phone.

"Um hi," Amelia replies, "God Arizona, what are you doing to me answering the phone like that, I'm still at the hospital," she says lowering her voice and teasing the blonde.

Arizona laughs, "Ah, well I just finished swimming laps and got back to my locker to check my phone," she explains.

"So now I'm imagining you in your swimsuit, thanks Robbins, big help," Amelia quips.

Laughing Arizona looks around the locker room to make sure no one is around before replying seductively, "Are you in your office, you could just lock the door and...".

"Um, not in the office, but thanks again." Amelia replies laughing. "Hey, Liz said she ran into you yesterday, so I just wanted to apologize for that."

"No need to apologize, I enjoyed meeting her," Arizona replies. "You've met my whole family, it's only fair that I meet some of yours."

"Uh, yeah but no. That's not going to happen, well not soon anyway," Amelia replies. "I haven't got you locked in yet, can't unleash the Shepherd wolves until you're locked in, that's one thing I did learn from my brother," she quips.

"Locked in, huh?" Arizona questions.

"Did we just really have this conversation?" Amelia asks. "Okay, I'm going to go back to work then, but we should talk later."

"Call me, I'm going to be working on the article. Lauren is looking at it now and sending it back to me. Hopefully, I can get it submitted this week." Arizona replies.

"Wait, why is Lauren helping you with this?" Amelia asks curiously, trying not to be jealous.

"She's been learning this procedure along with my students, she thought it would benefit her to know it and she wants to teach it to a surgeon at the clinic in Bolivia where she volunteers." Arizona explains.

"I-I didn't realize that you were still spending so much time with her," Amelia replies.

"Amelia, she's been monitoring the class off and on this whole time. I'm not spending much time with her and it wouldn't matter if I were, because I'm not interested in her," Arizona points out.

"Anymore," Amelia counters.

"Let's not do this now. I need to get dressed and dry my hair, please call me later?" Arizona asks.

"It might be late, I'm waiting on scans and maybe going into the OR soon," Amelia replies.

"Okay, well you can still call if you're not too tired. I'll probably be up working on this late tonight," Arizona replies.

"Wait, don't you have surgery tomorrow? Don't stay up too late," Amelia replies concerned. "Arizona, I'm sorry about being so sensitive about Lauren, I just, I'm not secure in this yet. You scare me, you know?"

"Call me later and let's talk about that and Amelia? I'm not secure in this yet either," Arizona replies.

* * *

"Where's my little miss?" Arizona asks entering her parent's house the next afternoon.

"Momma!" Sofia says jumping down from the chair and running to greet her.

"Oh my gosh, I missed you yesterday baby girl. What did you and grandma and grandpa do?" Arizona asks sitting down and pulling her daughter into her lap.

"We went out and got her a purple snow suit, gloves and boots," Barbara replies.

"Momma, it's going to snow tomorrow!" Sofia exclaims excitedly.

"I know!" Arizona replies equally excited.

"I want to build a snow fort," Sofia replies.

"Oh honey it takes a lot of snow to make a snow fort, we may not get enough for that," Arizona replies.

* * *

After putting Sofia to bed, Arizona enters the kitchen to see that her mom has poured them both a cup of tea.

"Oh, this is nice. I don't do this for myself as much as I should," Arizona remarks sitting down.

"I know that you need to get going, but I wanted to talk with you," Barbara explains.

"Is everything okay? I know this was a lot to ask and if having Sofia here is too much, just let me know." Arizona begins to apologize.

"Oh no, we couldn't be happier having Sofia here with us, in fact, your father and I are considering moving out to Seattle to be closer to you both, but we weren't sure how you'd feel about that," she replies.

"Uh, wow, I'd love that Mom and you know that Sofia would," Arizona remarks.

"How would Callie feel about it?" Barbara asks.

"Oh gosh, well I think she'd love it too. Do you want me to ask her?" Arizona questions.

"If you don't mind or we can ask her when she comes out to get Sofia next week," Barbara replies.

"I'll talk to her about it and let you know, but I can't imagine that she wouldn't be happy about it," Arizona replies taking another sip of the tea. "Now about this snowstorm. I really want to come back out tomorrow afternoon to play in the snow with Sofia and Teddy may come with me, I think she loves the snow more than Sofia does! But I do have another surgery in the morning, so it's going to depend on how that goes," Arizona explains.

"I just hope the snow doesn't miss us, she's really looking forward to it," Daniel says entering the room and sitting down with his trademark evening scotch.

"You should take my truck home tonight, so you can be sure to make it back tomorrow," he suggests.

"No Dad, what if you need it? I'll be fine, besides, I'm not even sure I can come back out tomorrow, it will depend on how my procedure goes in the morning," Arizona points out.

* * *

"That was amazing, Arizona." Teddy exclaims, she was able to observe the procedure from the gallery with her own students.

"Thanks, I'm just relieved it went so well, I thought that I would have to step in a couple of times, but O'Connell took care of it, she's a natural for this," Arizona points out.

"It's really great that your students work like a team in there, you're a really good teacher," Teddy says complimenting her.

"Teddy, I won't be able to do this very often, so don't get any ideas," Arizona remarks.

"No, but you could train someone to do it," Teddy replies.

"Hmm, we'll see. O'Connell is the first surgeon who I've had do this well with it," Arizona replies, "But she's not going to be available for a fetal fellowship for two years."

"I think you forget who you're talking to, I am the Commanding Training Officer of the Surgical field unit," Teddy reminds her.


	15. Chapter 15

"The flights are cancelled?" Callie repeats. She knew that there was a winter storm, but she was hoping that she could make it out there to play in the snow with her daughter. She called the airline after receiving a text from Arizona.

"Yes ma'am, there are no flights in or out of Dulles due to the heavy snowfall," the airline rep explains. "We'll send you an email when the restrictions are lifted."

Pulling her phone back out, Callie calls Arizona.

"All flights are cancelled," she says when the blonde answers.

"Yeah, I thought they would be. I barely made it back to Mom and Dad's," Arizona explains.

"Well, I'm glad that you are snowed in with her, can you put her on the phone?" Callie asks.

"Mami, it's snowing!" Sofia exclaims happily.

"I know baby girl, but it's snowing so much that Mami's plane can't leave Seattle," Callie replies.

"Oh, but Mami we are going to build a snow fort," Sofia reminds her.

"I'll be there as soon as I can and I can't wait to see your snow fort," Callie says, trying to hide her own disappointment.

Arizona takes the phone back and she and Callie talk for a few minutes before she ends the call.

"Momma when can we go outside?" Sofia asks. She's been at the window all day watching the snow.

"I think we may need to wait until tomorrow," Arizona replies going over to her daughter. "Grandpa, what do you think?"

"You're mom's right honey, we can't build a snow fort until it stops snowing," he explains.

"But we can go outside and catch snowflakes on our tongues!" Teddy says excitedly.

"Oh Momma, can I go catch snowflakes on my tongue?" Sofia squeals, running over to Teddy.

Arizona shakes her head, she knew bringing Teddy to play in the snow with Sofia would be interesting, "Okay, let's bundle up though, it's pretty cold out there."

Barbara goes over to help her granddaughter into the snow suit, while Arizona and Teddy get bundled up to take her outside.

Daniel and Barbara stand at the window and watch the girls twirl in the snow catching snowflakes, which isn't difficult since it's practically a blizzard. Daniel pulls out his phone and turns on the video then steps out onto the porch for a few minutes to capture it for Callie.

* * *

"Thank god I brought you with me!" Arizona exclaims returning to the family room after putting Sofia down for the night.

"The only thing better than playing in the snow, is playing in the snow with Sofia!" Teddy exclaims. "I may need to borrow her at least once every winter, can we work that out?" Teddy asks.

"We'll see," Arizona says laughing as Teddy hands her a glass of scotch.

"You're right, you dad has a great selection of scotch!" Teddy says taking a sip.

Arizona takes a sip and savors it a moment, then swallows it. "Oban," she replies.

"You're really good at this," Teddy replies laughing.

The two friends sit silently for a few minutes, relaxing and enjoying the scotch.

"Your parents are talking about moving to Seattle?" Teddy asks.

"Yeah, they want to talk to Callie about it this weekend, make sure that she won't mind," Arizona replies.

"Do you think she'd have a problem with it?" Teddy questions.

"Oh, no not at all. I think they just want to check in with her first," Arizona explains.

"Ah, I see. Well that's pretty awesome of them to consider her feelings about that," Teddy replies.

* * *

"Momma, momma! Wake up and see the snow!" Sofia exclaims from the bedroom window.

Yawning Arizona raises up on one elbow and looks over towards her daughter, "Wow, that's a lot of snow. You should go wake up Teddy, so she can see it!" Arizona says excitedly. Then as her daughter squeals and runs out of the room, she rolls back over and snuggles back under the covers.

Next door, she hears Teddy and Sofia squealing excitedly about the snow. She takes a deep breath and begins to drift back to sleep.

A few minutes later the house is oddly quiet and Arizona opens her eyes, what are they doing, she wonders.

"Momma?" Sofia whispers loudly, "Momma wake up, I want to show you something," Sofia says giggling.

"Theodora Altman, you didn't!" Arizona exclaims before cautiously pulling the covers back, only to have two handfuls of snow thrown at her as Teddy and Sofia gleefully run out of the room.

Daniel and Barbara stand in the hallway laughing, waiting for Arizona to come out. Then they all remember her leg.

"Oh, I uh, better go check on her," Teddy says embarrassed that she totally forgot about Arizona's prosthetic.

"Hey, Arizona?" she calls out opening the bedroom door. "Ah!" Teddy turns around suddenly, snow all over her face.

"Ooh Rah!" Arizona says holding onto the door, pleased that her ambush worked.

Daniel and Barbara burst out laughing and Sofia claps her hands.

"I can't believe that I fell for that!" Teddy replies wiping the snow from her face with her shirt.

"Yeah, me either." Arizona says laughing as she makes her way back to the bed to put her prosthetic on. She had to drop her crutches when she shoved the snowball into Teddy's face.

"How did you get that much snow?" Teddy asks helping her get back to the bed. Then noticing the open window, she laughs. "Seriously? You opened the window and knocked out the screen? That quickly?"

"Teddy, I grew up with an older brother, you better believe that I know how to retaliate in every situation!" Arizona replies laughing.

"Okay girls get dressed, breakfast is in 15 minutes!" Barbara calls down the hall.

* * *

When Teddy and Arizona enter the kitchen, Sofia is video chatting with Callie and she's telling her about the snowball fight this morning.

"Mami's going to have breakfast with us Momma!"

"Good morning Arizona, Teddy," Callie says greeting them as they both enter the view of the screen.

"Hey Callie!" Teddy says waving to her. "I need to work out winter custody of this one, she's my snow buddy," she explains ruffling Sofia's hair.

"So I've heard, and I think she would agree to that arrangement," Callie replies laughing.

Arizona hands Teddy a cup of coffee and sits down beside Sofia and smiles, "Calliope she just taught our daughter to wake up her mother with a snowball to the face, do not encourage this relationship!"

"But Momma it was so funny," Sofia says laughing and patting the blonde's face.

* * *

A few hours later, Sofia is in the house drinking hot chocolate with Barbara while Teddy, Daniel and Arizona are trying to finish the snowfort. "Dad, I'm done. And she's over it, look at her in there with mom sipping hot chocolate," Arizona whines.

"She's your daughter alright," Teddy teases.

"Teddy, don't make me take you down and rub snow in your face, again," Arizona teases.

"As if you could do that again," Teddy taunts making her way over to where Arizona is standing.

"Girls, now let's not get carried away, you're not kids any more, someone could get hurt," Daniel says stepping between them.

"Dad thinks we're old," Arizona says looking over at Teddy.

"Arizona, no," Teddy says shaking her head no.

"Arizona Robbins, you had best drop that snowball right now. Or you'll be cut off from the good scotch," Daniel warns.

Laughing Arizona drops the snowball, "Now that's good parenting!" she teases him.

"Yeah, if only I'd have realized it when you and Tim were drinking all my good stuff refilling the bottles with Cutty Sark," he groans.

"Oh Arizona, that's terrible." Teddy replies laughing. "Okay, I think we should call this done. I'm frozen too."

"You know that as soon as we go in there, that child is going to want to come out here and play again," Daniel points out to both of them.

"Yeah, I figured that would happen, so your Mom and I called in reinforcements," Teddy explains, "they should be here anytime."

* * *

"Uh Teddy, you invited Lauren and Tricia to my parents house without discussing it with me?" Arizona asks as they strip off their wet coats and boots in the garage.

"They're coming to pick me up, but I'm sure they won't mind playing with Sofia for a bit before we leave." Teddy explains.

"Teddy, Lauren can't be here, Callie will have a freaking fit if she finds out that she was here playing with Sofia."

"Oh, oh god, I'm sorry. I totally forgot about that. Shit, Arizona. Okay, so I'll call her and tell her, what should I tell her? I know, I'll just ask her to stay in the car," Teddy replies.

"Okay, that sounds stupid. Stop, I'll just pull Lauren aside and talk to her," Arizona says, worried now that not only is Callie going to freak out, but so will Amelia.

"Just pack your things so that you can leave with them as soon as possible," Arizona replies as they enter the house in their wet clothes.

"Girls go get dry clothes on, we're fixing lunch for you and Teddy's friends!" Barbara calls out when she hears them enter the house.

Arizona turns to glare at Teddy, "Oh, this is not good," she says worriedly to her friend.

"I'm sorry," Teddy whispers back to her.

* * *

Arizona decides to take a shower to warm up before getting dressed in dry clothes. By the time she enters the kitchen she hears Lauren's laugh. "Oh shit," she swears softly to herself.

"Hey Arizona," Tricia and Lauren say in unison.

"Hi, did you have an trouble finding us?" Arizona asks sitting down at the table.

"Not really and the roads aren't too bad, but they'll be better tomorrow," Tricia points out.

"Oh hey you guys are here!" Teddy exclaims entering the room and greeting them both with a quick hug before sitting down at the table.

"Are you sure that you girls can't stay for lunch?" Barbara asks.

"No we really need to get back, but it was really great of you to offer," Lauren replies, looking over at Arizona nervously.

Arizona closes her eyes a minute relieved that they've declined lunch when Sofia bursts into the room, "Grandma I'm starving," she says. Then realizing that there are people there that she doesn't know she runs over to Arizona and climbs into her lap and buries her face into Arizona's neck.

"Sofia, don't be rude. These are Aunt Teddy's friends, Lauren and Trish. Can you please turn around and say hello to them?" Arizona asks softly.

Sofia nods and then turns around slowly, "Hi," she says waving with one hand and playing with her hair nervously with the other.

"Is that your snow fort out there?" Trish asks her.

Sofia nods. "Momma, Teddy and Grandpa made it for me," she adds.

"It looks great, have you checked it out yet?" Trish asks.

"No, I have to wait until after lunch," she says sadly.

Barbara begins to suggest that Trish and Lauren take Sofia out to see the snow fort, when Teddy jumps up.

"Sofia, let me get my coat on and Trish and I can take you out for a few minutes to check it out," she offers looking over at Arizona for approval.

"Are you sure Teddy, she can wait until after lunch. Dad and I can take her," Arizona says feeling guilty now, because she's sure that Teddy really doesn't want to go back outside.

"No it's fine. You get her suit on her and I'll go get my boots on. It won't take but a few minutes," Teddy replies.

Trish goes over to help Arizona bundle her up and she tells Sofia that she has a daughter at home playing in the snow with her other mom.

"You're daughter has two moms like me?" Sofia asks.

"Yes, she does." Trish confirms.

"I had a dad and two moms, but now I just have two moms," Sofia explains.

"Wow a dad and two moms, you must be a very special girl," Trish replies sweetly. "Let's go out and see how this fort turned out," she says leading the little girl to the door.

Arizona watches them go out and jumps a little when Lauren comes up behind her. "I'm so sorry, Tricia just said that we were picking Teddy up, I didn't know that she was with you here until we were already on the way."

"Yeah, well thank you for understanding," Arizona replies, "I really don't want to have to explain this to Callie."

"We'll be out of here as soon as they come back inside," Lauren promises.


	16. Chapter 16

**_A/N: Going to be at the hospital tomorrow morning, should get another chapter posted late evening. Thanks for reading and reviewing!_**

* * *

"No, Calliope, there's no reason for either of us to fly out and back this week when Amelia is going to be here in DC on Thursday and Sofia can fly back with her on Sunday," Arizona says firmly.

"Fine, but are you sure Amelia is okay with that?" Callie asks.

"Yes, I already asked her. Look Cal, I know that you're disappointed but it's not like she is sitting around here in daycare with strangers. Mom and Dad are taking really good care of her and she loves it here," Arizona points out.

"I know, I know, I just...it's hard coming home to an empty house Arizona. It really sucks," Callie admits.

"I'm sorry. I know that is hard and I really appreciate everything that you've done so that I can see her while I'm here in DC, I hope that you know I'd do the same thing for you," Arizona replies.

"Yeah, I know that," Callie replies sighing heavily. "Look I'm sorry, I'm just frustrated about a lot of things right now, Penny and I have already broken up again," she explains.

Unsure how to respond, Arizona changes the subject. "Did Mom call you yet?" She asks.

"No, what about?" Callie asks curiously.

"Mom and Dad want to move to Seattle and they were hoping to discuss it with you this weekend," Arizona explains.

"Why would they think that I'd have a problem with them moving to Seattle, my god, I'd love to have them here and we both know Sofia would," Callie replies. "Just tell them to move here already."

Arizona laughs, "My thoughts exactly, okay, I'll let them know you feel the same way. Calliope, just hang in there and you deserve more than you'll get dating a resident. Take advantage of this extra time and do something for yourself, maybe go out, have some fun, and meet someone new."

"You're right, I know that you are right. I'll see if I can get Meredith to go out with me or something," Callie replies.

* * *

Monday morning Arizona heads into the skills lab to see Lauren, "Hey do you have a minute?" she asks.

"Sure, they just got started on their exercise," Lauren replies before following her out into the hall.

"Thank you for reviewing my article, I just sent it to the publisher," Arizona begins.

"Of course," Lauren replies, then adds, "Look don't feel like you have to apologize about Saturday, like I said, I never would have gone if I had known that we were going to pick Teddy up at your parent's place. I understand how complicated that could be."

"It's not that my parent's don't know about what happened, they just don't know that you are the one and I just don't want them to be uncomfortable around Callie knowing that you were in their home," Arizona explains.

"I get that, please don't feel like you need to apologize," Lauren says. "Arizona, it really sucks that I am this person in your life, I'd give anything to go back and change what happened. But we have to stop doing this. Maybe it would be better if we stop trying to be friends, it's too hard."

Arizona watches Lauren walk away from her, there is a lot of truth in what she's just said, but it still makes her sad. Under different circumstances they would be great friends and possibly more, she realizes. Sighing she turns around to see Dr O'Connell standing in the hallway staring at a bulletin board. Great, she probably overheard all of that, the blonde realizes.

"Uh, Dr Robbins, I have a few questions about our next procedure, do you have time to go over them?" she asks.

"I do, but let's go ahead into the classroom and see if anyone else is there yet, they may have similar questions," Arizona points out.

* * *

"Hi," she says before falling into the blonde's arms. "I missed you," Amelia says lifting her head to kiss her.

"Mmm, I missed you too", Arizona replies, taking her hand and leading her over to the sofa.

"Are we going out to your parents to see Sofia tonight?" Amelia asks.

"No, they brought her in for lunch today, but we'll go out there tomorrow for dinner though, is that alright?" Arizona asks.

"Of course it's alright. Why don't we just stay at your parents or just bring her back here for the rest of the weekend?" Amelia suggests.

Arizona looks conflicted and she sits back against the sofa, which pulls her hands out of Amelia's grasp.

"Is there a problem with us staying at your parents' house together? We've done it before," Amelia points out.

"We weren't together before," Arizona points out.

"Okay," Amelia says confused, then understanding what's going on she adds, "You haven't told your parents that we are together, have you?"

"Amelia, it's complicated. We've been in this bubble. What if we get back to our normal lives in Seattle and this doesn't work?" Arizona asks softly.

"This is real for me Arizona, there is no bubble. And you were just in Seattle and people know about us, so I don't understand where this is coming from," Amelia counters, her voice raising a bit.

"I just don't want us to rush this," Arizona explains, moving closer to her.

"Or you don't think it's going to last," Amelia replies scooting back. "That is what you think, isn't it?" she ask.

"Amelia this is new for both of us, let's just give it some time," Arizona replies.

"Arizona, what exactly did you and Liz talk about when you 'ran' into each other?" Amelia asks. "In Seattle you didn't seem to have problem with people knowing that we were together, but now you don't want your parents to know?"

"It's not that I don't want them to know, it's just, I'm not ready." Arizona confesses. "And it's nothing that Liz said to me, I just need more time."

* * *

"How was your evening?" Teddy asks the next morning, nudging her playfully.

"Not good, we ended up having the talk," Arizona says frowning.

"What talk? I thought things were going well?" Teddy asks pulling her aside in the hall.

"They were, but I have concerns, concerns that I wasn't ready to discuss with her yet, but now I have and now I don't know what's going to happen," Arizona says rapidly. "And we're supposed to go to dinner at my parents tonight, but I've screwed it all up," she says sadly.

"I'm sure it feels that way, but she has to understand why you'd have concerns. This is her first relationship with a woman," Teddy offers.

"Uh, she feels like I'm rejecting her, but I'm not, not really. I just, I just can't let myself fall in love with her until I know that she's ready for this," Arizona explains.

* * *

"Amelia?" Arizona enters the condo calling out for the brunette, who hasn't responded to her calls or texts all day.

Quickly walking through and checking each room, Arizona returns to the kitchen and sees the note.

Having dinner with my sister tonight, tell your parents hello. I'll see you tonight. A

Arizona calls her one more time, but it goes straight to voicemail. "Amelia please come back tonight, I need to see you." she says.

* * *

"Where is Amelia?" Barbara asks her daughter after dinner. "Did you two have a disagreement?"

"I don't know what you're talking about, I told you, she's having dinner with her sister," Arizona replies getting up to clear the table.

Barbara stands up and touches her arm, "Arizona, I know that you care for her, now why didn't she come with you tonight?"

Arizona takes a deep breath. "We were talking last night and she's upset that I haven't told you or Sofia that we're together."

"And what is the reason Arizona?" Barbara asks. "Why wouldn't you tell us that you're seeing her? She seems like a wonderful woman and it's obvious that Sofia adores her. I just don't understand."

"Mom it's complicated, okay?" Arizona goes back to clearing the table. "She's not had a relationship with a woman before and she lost her brother a year ago and she's still grieving," she explains.

"Weren't you Callie's first?" Barbara asks.

"I was and look how great that turned out?" Arizona replies sarcastically.

"What happened between you and Callie, the challenges that the two of you faced, those are not normal," she points out. "Not many couples would survive those things."

"It's not just that Mom, I made so many mistakes. What if I'm the reason things with Callie didn't work out? I'm the reason we had the car wreck, I was driving; the only reason that I was on the plane that crashed was because I took Alex's place. And then when we were finally getting back to happy, I miscarried our baby, then I cheated on her. So all of these challenges are things that I did, I'm the one who put those challenges into our relationship. I ruined it, I ruined everything with Callie." Arizona replies tearfully.

"Now you listen to me Arizona Robbins," Barbara says placing a hand on her shoulder and turning her around, "That is a bunch of horseshit."

"Mom!" Arizona exclaims, shocked at her mother's language.

"You're scared. Things didn't workout with Calliope and you're scared. I get that. But we didn't raise you to be a quitter. You don't get to sit on the sidelines and watch the game, which by the way, is exactly what you've been doing for the past two years." Barbara replies.

* * *

"There's my girl!" Callie says when Amelia and Sofia come out of the secure area.

"Mami! I missed you so much and the snow was awesome!" Sofia exclaims running up to her.

"I'm sorry that I missed it," Callie replies. Then looking over to Amelia she asks, "How was the flight?"

"It was good. Listen, I'm going to catch the metro back, here's her bag." Amelia says quickly handing over Sofia's things to Callie.

"Wait Amelia, I can drop you off. Please, you just brought Sofia back, let me take you home," Callie says reaching out to stop her from running off.

Amelia shrugs, she just really wants to be alone but not wanting to be rude about it she agrees.

Once in the car, Sofia dozes off. Callie notices and then looks over at the brunette in the passenger seat. "You want to talk about it?" She asks.

"You don't have to do that," Amelia says, "we aren't really friends. It's fine, I'll be fine." She replies.

"If I had to guess, I'd say that Arizona is dragging her feet a little right about now. Pushing you back a little, is that it?" Callie asks.

Amelia looks over at her questioningly.

"Is she your first girlfriend?" Callie asks.

Amelia shrugs, "first relationship with a woman, yes." She clarifies.

"Yeah she did that with me too. It means that she really cares about you but she's scared. Scared that you might get spooked and go back to guys," Callie explains.

"That is the lesbian nightmare, isn't it?" Amelia snarks.

"It is. So just hang in there and don't let her get away with it," Callie replies.

"What do you mean?" Amelia asks.

"Do everything that you normally do, call her, text her, just don't back off. If you back off then she'll think she's right and she's not right, is she?" Callie asks.

* * *

"Hi. I just wanted to check and make sure everything was okay. Amelia called and cancelled our dinner and didn't really tell me why."

"She told me that she had dinner with you Friday, said that you couldn't make it Saturday," Arizona replies.

"Hmm, so what is going on? Liz asks.

"I'm not sure. She was a bit upset that I didn't want to tell my parents yet and we were supposed to have dinner with them Friday night. I got here to pick her up she left a note saying that she was having dinner with you. I came home with Sofia and Amelia was in the guest room.

The next day she interacted more with Sofia than with me and when they left today she barely said goodbye. I think I really messed up." Arizona replies.

"Is this because of our talk? Are you having second thoughts now, damn. I knew that I shouldn't have said anything." Liz exclaims.

"You didn't say anything that I wasn't already thinking. Liz I don't have that great of a track record either and I've made a lot of mistakes. I don't want to hurt her, so I'm just trying not to rush into anything, " Arizona explains.


	17. Chapter 17

"Alex?" Arizona is disappointed when she sees Alex waiting to pick them up instead of Amelia.

"Shepherd and Torres are both in surgery, they asked me to pick you guys up," he explains. "Hello Mr and Mrs Robbins," he adds greeting her parents.

"Alex, it's Barbara and Daniel, you're family now," she reminds him and leans in to give him a hug and kiss on the cheek.

"It's great to see you both again, I understand that you're moving to Seattle?" Alex asks.

Arizona trails behind them turning her phone on, hoping for a message from Amelia at least. The phone buzzes, two voicemails and one text.

"Arizona, a trauma just came in, multiple injuries. Alex said he could pick you guys up. I'm sorry, not sure when I'll be done. Callie and I are waiting for CT scans now. I'll call you soon."

"We're heading into surgery, Callie says you should pick up Sofia and go home. We'll be late. Damn, I have to go, bye, love you."

Arizona stops in her tracks and looks up. Alex glances back, "Hey you coming or what?" he asks sarcastically.

"Yeah, sorry checking messages," she says quickly and slips her phone back into her bag.

In the back of the car she pulls her phone out and reads the text, it's from Callie.

"There's a key to my place for your parents to use in Sofia's bag."

"Alex just drop us off at my place and we'll get my car and pick Sofia up later," Arizona says from the back seat.

* * *

Her parents decided to go to the hospital with Alex. Walking into her house, the first thing Arizona sees is a lovely bouquet of flowers on the counter. She smiles as she walks past them to take her things into her bedroom, seeing another flower arrangement on her dresser, she picks up the note and sits down to read it...

 _"To love is so startling it leaves little time for anything else."_

* * *

"Hey little miss!" Arizona says when she enters the daycare.

"Momma," Sofia says rushing to the blonde when she enters the room.

"I want to go check on Callie's surgery, are you guys okay for just a little bit longer?" Arizona asks.

"We're fine honey, go check on them. We'll wait here," Barbara replies squeezing her daughter's hand.

"Okay Mom, thanks. I'll just be a little while," Arizona promises.

* * *

Arizona enters the gallery, she watches as Callie and Amelia finish up the surgery. Then Amelia instructs Edwards to close and she turns away from the table. Callie calls out to Amelia they discuss something then they both laugh and then notice Arizona and they wave to her.

"How was your trip? Where are your parents?" Callie and Amelia each ask a question when she enters the scrub room.

"The trip was fine. They are in the daycare with Sofia, I just wanted to check with you before we leave," she says looking from one to the other awkwardly. Wondering when they became friends.

"We're done," Amelia replies.

"Hey, why don't we all go out to dinner together?" Callie suggests.

"Uh..." Arizona replies unsure, looking over at Amelia.

"Sounds good, let's get changed Torres." Amelia says clapping the other brunette on the back.

"You guys go get a table and we'll meet you there," Callie says ripping off her gown.

"Where?" Arizona asks backing up to open the door.

"Red Tricycle," Callie says, shaking her head as she walks past her. "Have you forgotten your daughter's favorite restaurant?"

Amelia pauses and leans in to kiss her cheek, "We'll see you soon," she says softly. "You look beautiful," she adds and winks at her as she walks away.

* * *

"When did that happen?" Arizona asks as they enter the house after dinner.

"When did what happen?" Amelia asks laughing at her.

"When did you and Callie become friends?" she questions.

"I don't know, it just happened. I've been helping with Sofia a lot lately," Amelia says shrugging. "Does it bother you?"

"Oh no, it was just unexpected," Arizona says pulling her close and kissing her cheek. "It was really amazing to come home to these beautiful flowers. Thank you."

"You're welcome," Amelia replies, kissing her lightly and turning to go into her bedroom. Glancing back she sees the confused look on the blonde's face so she adds, "I'm going to shower, would you like to watch a movie?"

"Okay," Arizona says wondering what is going on.

* * *

"Hey, are you going to bed?" Amelia asks from the doorway of the blonde's bedroom.

"Come here," she replies patting her bed.

Amelia enters her room and sits down on the bed. Arizona takes her hand and cuddles up to her. "Thank you for helping with Sofia and everything," she says leaning in and kissing her.

"Thank you for telling your parents that we're together," Amelia counters returning the kiss. "So I have an idea, since you're here for several days, I thought maybe we could go out on a couple of dates."

"Really?" she asks surprised.

"Yes. You are right, since we already live together it would be really easy to skip a few steps, so this week we should date," Amelia replies. "And I have tomorrow night all planned, I'll pick you up at 7."

"What should I wear? Is this a dress up date or a casual date?" Arizona asks.

"Oh, it's a dress up date." Amelia confirms standing up.

"Where are you going?" Arizona questions.

"You're tired and I'm tired, so we should go to bed. I'll, uh, see you in the morning."

"You're not going to stay here with me tonight?" Arizona asks.

"Sleep with you before we even go out on a date? What kind of woman do you think I am Robbins!" She teases playfully. Then leaning across the bed she kisses her again, "Hmm, how could I sleep if you're in the bed beside me?" she asks.

"Smooth Shepherd, very smooth," Arizona replies wrapping her arms around her and pulling her back down on to the bed, I'm not that tired, we could at least make out first," she whispers, "But I didn't fly all this way to see you and sleep alone."

* * *

"Um, wow. You look amazing."

After lunch with her parents and Sofia, the two women went their separate ways and for the past hour or so they've each been getting ready for their date.

"Thank you," Amelia says taking her hand. "You're so beautiful," she says softly kissing her lips.

A soft knock at the door and Amelia's eyes light up, "Let the date begin," she says laughing.

"Dr Shepherd?" the man asks when the door opens.

"Yes, we'll be right down. Thank you," she says.

"Who was that?" Arizona asks.

"That's our driver for the night," she explains smiling at the blonde. "Sure you're ready for this?"

"Where are we going?" Arizona asks once they are in the car.

"First we're going to the Seattle Art Museum, they're opening a new collection tonight and I think you'll love it," she explains.

"An art opening? I don't think I've ever been to the museum at night," she remarks.

* * *

"I didn't even know there was a Lilongwe Art Exhibit on tour in the US," Arizona exclaims as they are waiting to be seated for dinner.

"I'm glad that you enjoyed it, I noticed the brochure because the art on it was similar to the piece you have at the house on the mantel," she explains.

"Hmm, thank you. It was amazing and I loved it," Arizona says squeezing her hand.

"Dr Shepherd, your table is ready," the Maitre'd informs them, "right this way, please."

He leads them to a table in the center of the room with the best view of the Sound.

"That view is incredible," Arizona marvels after they are seated.

"This view is pretty incredible too," Amelia replies not taking her eyes off the blonde.

Arizona turns to see where she's looking and then realizes that she's looking at her. The blonde flushes a little, "you're pretty good at this," she remarks.

"Did you really think I wouldn't be?" Amelia questions playfully.

"No, it's just. You haven't. Well we haven't. But, wow, you seem really comfortable with... everything," Arizona says carefully trying to explain.

"Just because I haven't dated a woman, doesn't mean that I was scared to. It means I hadn't met one that I wanted to date before," Amelia explains as she takes the blonde's hand.

The waiter appears and pours champagne into Arizona's glass and sparkling water into Amelia's glass.

"When did you order this?" Arizona questions.

"I've already ordered everything," Amelia replies winking at her.

* * *

"I think this was easily the best date I've ever had," Arizona admits as they walk towards the door to her house.

"Me too." Amelia replies. "But it's not quite over," she says opening the door to the house.

"Oh my god, how did you do this?" Arizona asks entering to see candles lit and soft music playing.

"I have my ways," Amelia purrs, pulling the blonde to her and kissing her.

"Hmm," the blonde says before reaching up and pulling Amelia's hair down so she can run her fingers through her thick curls.

Gasping, Amelia deepens the kiss and wraps her arms around her, pulling back a little she begins kissing the blonde's neck and moving her towards the couch.

"We're way past making out on the couch," Arizona says breathlessly, taking her hand to lead her to the bedroom.

 _ **A/N: sorry for the short chapter, I got called into work. More later though, promise!**_


	18. Chapter 18

"What are you thinking, right now?" Amelia says leaning over and taking her hand.

They are snuggled into the couch neither watching the movie that's on the tv.

"I'm not thinking, I'm watching the movie," Arizona replies hoping to deflect her so she can gather her thoughts.

"Liar!" Amelia says playfully, "I've been watching you for five minutes and you haven't even looked at the tv."

Arizona laughs, "Hmmm, so what you are really saying is that you're not watching the movie either," she confesses, looking down at their intertwined fingers.

"No, I'm not and this movie is terrible. Are they all this bad?" she asks.

"Many of them are not good. And now you know why I call it 'the best of the bad lesbian movie collection'." she says smiling.

Picking up the remote, Amelia shuts off the movie and turns to Arizona, "can I tell you something?" she asks.

Nodding yes, Arizona glance over nervously, then shifts her position so that she can better see her face to face.

"After that first time, when I was being evasive, that wasn't because I was unsure of being with you or unsure of how I felt about you," she explains. "I was unsure of my ability to do this. You see, I've never really done this. This is a level of normal that I've never attained with anyone else. That's what I needed to be sure of. I couldn't stand the thought of messing this up with you. So I had to be absolutely sure that I could do this, that I really wanted to do this."

"Oh," Arizona says thoughtfully, looking down again at their intertwined fingers in her lap. "I assumed you were going through the first time shock and it scared me, because you seemed so sure of what you wanted."

"I was sure. Am sure of what I want. The only thing I wasn't sure of was me. But I am now. And I need you to know that I'm in love with you, big time 'in love' with you," she replies softly.

"I know." Arizona replies leaning in and kissing her. "And it's okay, I'm falling in love with you too."

Amelia returns the kiss, relieved to have finally said it. Then she pulls back, "You know?" she asks.

"You've told me twice now," Arizona replies. "I just didn't know if I could trust you yet."

"No, I just said that I could fall in love with you," Amelia protests.

"No one says that unless they're in love and scared to admit it though," Arizona counters and kisses her again. "You also said it in the voicemail you left when I was flying here."

"I did?" She asks surprised.

"You said, 'damn I have to go, bye, love you." Arizona repeats. "I almost dropped my phone," she says laughing softly.

Flushing a bit, Amelia looks down, "I've never been the one to say it first," she confesses.

"Saying it first is scary, but also exciting," Arizona replies raising her eyebrows playfully, before lifting her chin and kissing her.

Amelia responds and deepens the kiss, pushing the blonde back on the couch, Amelia moves on top of her. "But I've also never been this sure of what I want," she says breathlessly.

* * *

"Spill it," Teddy says when they get in car. "I can tell that you're obscenely happy."

"It went really well. Better than expected. Mom and Dad found a house and they stayed behind to make an offer on it." Arizona explains. "So how are you and Thomas? Did you get reacquainted?"

"We did, he's been at my place since he got back, so I ran home today. You'll meet him this week though," Teddy promises.

"I can't wait," Arizona replies smiling at her friend. "Oh and thank you for picking me up."

"Always pick friends up at the airport, it's the easiest way to put good karma in the bank," Teddy replies laughing.

* * *

"Teddy cancelled, guess it's just us today." Arizona saying slipping her phone back into her pocket.

"Hey Trish and I found a new Thai place last week, want to check it out?" Lauren asks.

"Sounds good," Arizona replies following her out to the car.

* * *

At the restaurant Lauren is telling Arizona about her date over the weekend and they are laughing, when suddenly a man clears his throat behind them.

"It is bad enough that you cheated on Callie with this woman, now you're doing the same thing to Amelia," he spits out angrily. "You don't deserve her, Robbins!" he says loudly as Teddy rushes up to them.

Standing up, Arizona clenches the table. "Mister you are so out of line here, this is none of your business, zero! You need to back off and ..."

Lauren stands up, "Hey!" she says loudly to get his attention. "This is just two friends having lunch, everyone just calm down, you're making a scene," she says glaring at him.

Pulling Owen away, Teddy apologizes, "Arizona, Lauren, I'm so sorry. I didn't think you guys would come here too."

Arizona sits down and takes a drink of water and tries to calm down. Willing herself not to cry, she focuses on her breathing and waits for Lauren.

Returning to the table with their lunch boxed up, Lauren is careful not to touch the blonde, "Hey, let's get out of here so people will stop staring," she says glaring at a few of the more persistent ones as they make their way out of the restaurant to the safety of the car.

Arizona turns to Lauren and hands her the keys, "Would you mind driving back?" she asks. Once in the car, Arizona reaches out to touch her arm, "Lauren, I'm so sorry. He had no right to do that," she apologizes. Then considering what happened, she says out loud "But I better call Amelia and warn her."

"She knows that we're friends, right?" Lauren asks as they get into the car to leave.

"Yes, she knows everything about you and me," Arizona says carefully, "and while it makes her uncomfortable, she accepts that I still see you as a colleague and friend."

Placing her phone to her ear, she calls Amelia, but gets her voicemail, "Hey I just ran into Owen at lunch and he was an ass. Call me when you have time. I love you, bye."

Raising her eyebrows playfully, Lauren remarks, "Wow, things are going well on the homefront."

"Yeah," Arizona replies blushing a bit, "We had a really good week together, everything is really amazing. She and Callie are friends now, which was really shocking. We told Sofia and she was great about it, which wasn't shocking since Amy has been helping Callie with her. We actually went out on a few dates and really enjoyed ourselves, things have been really good," Arizona replies.

"That's great Arizona, I'm really happy for you. Now I hope that asshole doesn't screw things up for you," she adds.

"Yeah, me too," she replies with a worried glance at her phone.

* * *

Arizona's phone buzzes while she's watching her students practice the new procedure, it is a text from Amelia.

"Sorry, I was in surgery. What is Owen doing in DC? Let's talk later and I'm sorry that he was rude to you."

Arizona replies, "I was at lunch with Lauren, Teddy cancelled but didn't tell us why."

"Okay, got it. Talk tonight! XoXo" Amelia responds.

Setting the phone down, Arizona breathes a little easier. At least Amelia has all the information, so if he should decide to contact her she won't be blindsided.

A few minutes later, Teddy enters the lab and they step outside to the hall.

"Arizona, I am so sorry. I had no idea that he would react like that. He's staying at my place tonight, but don't worry, he doesn't know that you're in the building," she explains.

"Teddy, you know that there is nothing between Lauren and I, right?" Arizona asks. "It is very important to me that you know that he was totally off base. The three of us had lunch plans and you cancelled, that's why we were having lunch together," she reminds her.

"Yes, I explained that to him, but he thinks he knows you better than I do." She explains. "I hate to ask, but have you spoken with Amelia yet?" Teddy asks.

"I left her a voicemail, but she's been in and out of surgery today. We just exchanged text messages, so she knows that I was having lunch with Lauren and we ran into you and Owen." Arizona replies.

"I haven't seen him like this before and I'm not sure what is going on with him. I've called Thomas to come over and stay with us tonight, because I don't really want to deal with him by myself," Teddy admits.

* * *

Sitting on her bed after a long hot shower Amelia finally calls her back. "Hey," Arizona says answering the call, "Can we switch to Facetime?" she asks.

A few minutes later and a freshly showered Amelia fills her screen, "Hmm, I miss you and I really miss showering with you," Amelia replies playfully.

"I miss that too," Arizona says, feeling a bit relieved.

"So I have a few missed calls from Owen, but no messages," Amelia remarks. "I take it that he recognized Lauren from when she was here a few years ago?"

"Yes," Arizona replies. "Amelia you should have seen him, he made such a scene. It was horrible."

"Well, remember what he did before he left here? He sucker punched Riggs, so it sounds like he still hasn't dealt with whatever it was that made him leave Seattle," Amelia remarks.

"Please know that Lauren and I were just having lunch and we rarely go to lunch together alone like that," she explains. "It's important to me that you know that."

"I trust that you wouldn't lie to me about that and I know what a terrible liar you are," she replies sarcastically.

"So you trust me or you trust that I'm a terrible liar?" Arizona asks concerned.

"Arizona, I have no reason to not trust you. Let's not even discuss this any more," she says laying down on the bed and removing her towel, "I'd prefer to take advantage of the fact that we're both naked under these towels."


	19. Chapter 19

"Arizona, I just got off the phone with Owen," Callie says when the blonde answers her phone the next morning.

"Oh god, Callie it was just lunch," Arizona begins.

"Have you talked to Amelia yet? He's been trying to reach her, he asked me to have her call him," she explains.

"She knows what happened and she's avoiding his call," Arizona replies. "It was supposed to be lunch with Lauren and Teddy, but Teddy cancelled at the last minute, so we went any way." Arizona explains.

"Well I told him that he had no business talking to Amelia about it," Callie says angrily.

"Uh, thank you. That means a lot to me, Calliope," Arizona says getting a little emotional.

"And he has no right to judge you on what happened here, that happened for a lot of reasons, none of which have anything to do with your relationship with Amelia. l told him that and I told him to back off," Callie remarks.

* * *

"Hey, I just wanted to check... is everything okay?" Lauren asks when they see each other at the coffee cart later that morning.

"So far, I'm still shocked that he reacted that way. But I think he's leaving today," Arizona replies.

"I'm not looking forward to running into him again either," Lauren admits.

"Oh, my journal article will be published next issue. I gave you a contribution credit," Arizona adds before she walks away.

"You didn't have to do that, I was happy to help," Lauren replies smiling at her.

"Well, I appreciate the help and you deserve the credit for learning the procedure and helping to edit the article." Arizona replies.

* * *

Arizona's class is going well, this new sequence on repairing Spinal Bifida defects is more complex than the first procedure but it is a more common birth defect and one that she can teach how to repair in-utero and postnatally.

After spending the morning going over the procedure with videos, they are focused as she demonstrates the procedure in the skills lab.

"Excuse me, Dr Robbins, may I have a word with you?"

Startled to hear that voice in her lab, Arizona glances up and frowns.

"Dr Hunt, I'm sure that you can appreciate that I'm teaching right now and whatever you have to say can wait until I am finished," Arizona says, annoyance and frustration clear in her voice.

"Actually, I'm about to leave for the airport. Please, just one moment?" He asks.

Openly glaring at him. Arizona looks at her students. "Let's take a five minute break," she says setting the implements down.

Once the lab is clear, she walks over and closes the door and looks at him expectantly.

"Teddy says that I owe you an apology for making a scene yesterday," he begins looking down, "Torres defended you and Amelia won't even take my calls."

Arizona stands with her arms crossed waiting for him to get to the point.

"What I'm trying to say is that, Arizona, I am sorry if I was out of line yesterday," he finishes looking up at her.

"IF you were out of line?" Arizona replies loudly. "Owen, there is no question that you were out of line yesterday!"

"I was just shocked to see you with Dr Boswell after everything that happened between the two of you in Seattle," he tries to explain.

"Let me explain this to you, my life is not any of your business. Who I have lunch with? Not your business. Who I'm seeing? Also not your business. There is nothing about me that has anything to do with you, so just get on the plane and go back to your life and stay out of mine!" she replies angrily.

"I care about her, about Amelia. I care about her and I don't want to see her hurt," he stammers.

"Then stay away from her, because you are the one who hurt her," Arizona says opening the door and gesturing for him to leave.

* * *

When her class files back into the classroom, Arizona focuses on the procedure and teaching the techniques they will need to learn. Her intensity is a bit much and finally she looks up at them and realizes that she's pushing too hard.

"Okay, go to your stations and practice, I need to step out a minute," she says trying to smile at them, but realizing that she's still angry about Owen interrupting her class with his half-assed apology.

In the hall, she pulls out her phone and sees a missed call from Amelia, so she listens to the message.

 _"According to my latest voicemail from Owen, he talked to you again. I love you Arizona. And I'm sorry he's being such an ass."_

Arizona quickly texts back, _"Thank you... I love you too."_

Heading back into her classroom, she spends the rest of the day a bit less intense and her student's notice the difference.

* * *

"How was your day?" Teddy asks in the locker room at the end of the day.

"Owen came to my classroom to apologize," Arizona informs her.

"I told him he owed you one, but I didn't realize that he would come here to do it." Teddy replies.

"He sucks at apologizing by the way," she says annoyed.

"Look, he's not himself right now, he's got a lot going on," Teddy begins to explain.

"Teddy, that's just it. This is how he's always been. He inserts himself into situations, it's what he does. It's just this is the first time he's done it in my personal life," she retorts.

"I see your point," she says not wanting to continue this conversation. "Hey did your parents get the house in Seattle?"

Taking a breath, Arizona can appreciate that Teddy wants to change the topic, so she replies, "They did, now they're putting their house on the market."

"It will sell fast, the market out here is crazy," Teddy replies.

* * *

"Slight change of plans for next month," Amelia says that night when they are talking over Skype.

"Okay, what's the change?" Arizona questions.

"My mom wants us to have dinner together, so she's coming in a day earlier, which means I'm coming in a day earlier," Amelia explains. "Is that okay?"

"Of course it is. Does this mean that you told her about us?" Arizona asks.

"I did and she was annoyed that I hadn't told her before now," Amelia replies. "Oh and she remembers you and thinks you're pretty. She doesn't know what happened between you and Torres, but I'm sure that she'll find out and you'll know if she does."

"Then I'll tell her myself. I'm not proud of it, but I'm not going to pretend like it didn't happen either," Arizona admits.

* * *

"Mom, that's wonderful! I'm so happy that the house sold already." Arizona replies when her mom calls.

It's been a few weeks since the whole situation with Owen and everything settled down again.

"I'm just sorry that we're going to close in a few weeks and we'll be in Seattle and you'll be out here alone," Barbara exclaims.

"I'm not out here alone, Mom. Teddy is here and Meredith, Callie and Amelia will be here in a few weeks for the ceremony at the White House." Arizona reminds her.

"Your father and I wanted to meet Amelia's family, we're a bit disappointed to be leaving so soon," she admits.

"You'll meet them when they visit us in Seattle," Arizona replies, "besides I haven't even met them all yet."

* * *

"Don't be nervous, you've met my mom before," Amelia points out, trying to organize the brochure display while they wait at the train station for Carolyn to arrive.

"You're nervous enough for both of us," Arizona replies laughing at her and grabbing her hands. "Take a breath and relax a minute."

"Amy!" Carolyn says approaching her daughter and kissing her cheek. Then turning to the blonde, "Arizona, lovely as ever," she says leaning in to kiss her too.

"Mrs Shepherd, it's great to see you again," Arizona replies accepting the kiss on the cheek.

"Oh the two of you make a lovely couple," she says reaching out and squeezing their hands.

"Mom, where are your bags?" Amelia asks.

"The porter is bringing them in a minute, he's is such a nice man. His son is in med school!" She explains.

"Amelia, I'll go bring the car around to the pick up area," Arizona offers.

"Good idea," Amelia replies watching her leave.

"You look really happy Amy," Carolyn says wrapping an arm around her.

"Thanks Mom, I am happy," Amelia says beaming a smile at her.

"Oh here he is with my bags," Carolyn says as the porter approaches.

* * *

"Arizona, I understand that your parents just sold their house and are moving to Seattle, you must be quite excited," Carolyn states as they sit down at the restaurant.

"I am, it will be wonderful to have them closer." Arizona replies.

"And your daughter, Sofia, is it? She seems like a wonderful child, Amelia sent me that little video of you playing in the snow, it was delightful," Carolyn says pleasantly.

"We don't get snow like this in Seattle," Arizona explains, "this was Sofia's first time playing in more than just a few inches of snow."

"Well, now you'll just have to bring her out to visit me next winter, we get a lot snow in Connecticut." Carolyn points out.

"Mom, it's kind of early to be planning the holidays," Amelia points out.

"No, it's really not. I know what it's like for doctors to take time off, I have five of them, counting Meredith, six if we start counting Arizona," she says smiling tightly.

Amelia looks uncomfortably at her mom and then Arizona, but before she can say anything, the server appears to take their order.

* * *

"How are you doing?" Arizona asks Amelia when her mom goes to the bathroom.

"I'm fine, what about you?" Amelia asks, taking her hand.

"I'm good," Arizona says leaning in and kissing her lightly. "I love you," she whispers.

"I know," Amelia says winking at her. "It's a good thing too because tomorrow you meet the rest of my family."

"I'm not worried, Liz and your mom are wonderful," Arizona points out.

"Just remember Meredith refers to them as the Shepherd wolves for a reason," Amelia counters.

"Now what are you telling her, Amelia?" Carolyn asks returning to the table.

"Just reminding her that she'll meet everyone tomorrow, Mom." Amelia replies.

"And stop referring to your sisters as a pack of wolves," Carolyn says sharply.

Arizona hides a smile at the exchange, she knows that Meredith and Cristina came up with that title for Derek's sisters and it included Amelia.


	20. Chapter 20

**_A/N: Thank you to everyone following this story, your comments and reviews have been much appreciated. This is the first story that I've written with assistance and it was a great experience!_**

* * *

"Meredith, you look well," Kate says greeting her sister-in-law with a light hug.

"And so do you, good to see you again," Meredith replies.

"The kids look great Meredith, and Bailey is starting to look a bit more like Derek every time I see him," Nancy remarks.

"Mom, can I please go sit with Sofia now?" Zola asks.

"Yes Zo, but you sit with her and don't leave this area. The car will be here to pick us up soon, okay?" Meredith reminds her as she watches her head over to sit with Callie and Sofia.

Meredith then notices that Amelia and Arizona are sitting across from Callie with Nancy.

"Arizona, I understand that you trained under Nicole Herman. Did you know that I worked on a case with her at Hopkins when I first finished med school?" Nancy asks.

"Uh, no I didn't realize that you were at Hopkins," Arizona replies.

"I was an obstetrical surgical fellow there," Nancy explains.

"Ironically, she got pregnant and didn't complete it," Amelia points out.

"I did complete it, just not at Hopkins," Nancy counters annoyed.

"So you worked with Nicole before she was in Fetal Medicine?" Arizona asks trying to get them back on track.

"Yes, I hear that she's in Hawaii now," Nancy replies.

"No, she always wanted to retire there, but she's actually teaching at Perkins in Watertown," Arizona says, "She's doing really well. I just visited her a few weeks ago."

"Oh, I didn't realize she was so close, Amelia have you visited her yet?" Nancy asks.

"Uh, yeah. I visit her almost every time I'm here," Amelia replies.

"Wait, you've visited her every time you've been here?" Arizona asks surprised.

"Well, not every time, it is 8 hours away," she admits.

* * *

"Okay, would everyone gather around?" Carolyn asks waving them in. "Now Meredith, the kids and I will go in the first car and the rest of you can take the second car. Each driver will want to see your id and your pass, so please have those handy."

"Mom, did you find out if Callie and Arizona can go with us?" Amelia asks.

"Yes, they can go in with us," Carolyn replies.

* * *

"In recognition for his work..." President Obama begins.

Meredith beams a happy smile as she listens to President Obama recognize Derek for his work on the Presidential Commission. She's amazed at how well the kids are behaving, but then with Derek's sisters there, they have the kids outnumbered. Zola is standing beside her, Carolyn is holding Ellis and Bailey is standing with Amelia. They were able to get tickets for Callie, Arizona and Sofia and they all will get to meet the President at the reception.

"I still can't believe we're at the White House," Callie whispers to Arizona after the President presents Meredith and Carolyn with Derek's award and Presidential Medal of Freedom.

* * *

"Hi," Amelia says walking over to Arizona after the ceremony. "That was kind of cool," she remarks smiling at the blonde and taking her hand.

"It was amazing really," Arizona replies tearfully.

"Hey, we had a deal no tears," Amelia reminds her wrapping an arm around her.

"I know, I know," she replies softly, dabbing them with a tissue. "But look at how happy and proud your mom is today."

"I know," Amelia says with tears in her own eyes. "I still can't believe that he's gone. Can you believe that? It's been two years and I can still hear his voice in my head," she adds, her voice breaking with emotion.

Arizona is stunned, this is the first time Amelia has shown emotion like this in regard to Derek, so she pulls her into an embrace.

Kate and Nancy are watching from across the room and one of them reaches over to nudge Liz.

"Mom," Liz says tugging gently on her sleeve and motioning to Arizona and Amelia.

Carolyn walks over to the two women, "Amelia?" she says softly placing her hand on her back.

Amelia grabs her Mom and embraces her. Carolyn talks softly to Amelia and after a few minutes she pulls away from her.

Arizona reaches out and takes Amelia's hand and leans in to kiss her head lightly.

* * *

"Happy Thanksgiving!" Arizona and Amelia say when Carolyn opens the door.

"Girls! Come in, come in!" Carolyn says pulling them inside.

"Amy take your things upstairs, Arizona and I need to talk about Sofia's Christmas gift," Carolyn says putting an arm around the blonde.

"We're planning our annual family ski trip and we'd like you and Sofia to join us. Now I realize that you may not be a skier, but not all of us are skiers either. The resort that we go to offers sledding and ice skating too. I'll have Kate send you the information," Carolyn explains.

"I'll have to discuss this with Callie, but it sounds wonderful thank you for including us," Arizona replies warmly.

"Mom, you didn't turn the heat on upstairs yet. We're going to need to light a fire to get the chill off up there." Amelia says entering the room.

"There's a fireplace upstairs?" Arizona asks.

"Yes, Arizona" Carolyn replies, "this is an old house and my brother, the plumber, he pulled all of the radiators out and put in small gas fireplaces into each of the upstairs bedrooms," she explains. "Now Amelia do you need help getting it lit?"

"No, I think I remember how. I just couldn't find any matches upstairs," she says putting her cold hands on Arizona's waist under her sweater.

"Oh!" Arizona exclaims pushing her away. "Amelia your hands are like ice!"

"I know!" she says laughing at her.

"Okay, Amelia stop," Carolyn says smacking her arm with the box of matches. "Now I'm going to come up there with you and make sure you do it correctly, we don't need you to burn the house down."

"Mom, I'm a brain surgeon, I can light the fireplace without burning the house down," Amelia says groaning at her. "And when are you going to sell this place? I don't know how you keep up with it."

"I pay my grandchildren to help me clean it," Carolyn replies, "which is about the only way to get them to visit me now that they're teenagers."

* * *

"Hmm, it's cozy in here now." Arizona says when Amelia enters the room.

"We need to make the most of having this to ourselves tonight, because the house will be full tomorrow," Amelia says plopping down on the bed beside her.

"Would it be weird if I told you that I've never had this kind of Thanksgiving before?" Arizona asks.

"What do you mean? I don't understand," Amelia asks.

"My family is just me and my parents and Sofia, and before that it was just me, Tim and my parents," She explains. "I'll admit, I'm a little nervous about tomorrow."

"Ah, well let me warn you about tomorrow. We are loud, the kids will fight and tease each other, the adults will fight and tease each other, it's what we do, you'll be overwhelmed. My sisters, my sisters will take turns being nice and a little rude, you'll be offended more than once." Amelia says wrapping an arm around her. "But here's the thing, being a part of a big family has it's advantages."

"It's sounds like chaos, is that the advantage that you're talking about?" Arizona asks sarcastically.

Laughing, Amelia leans in and kisses her. "Actually the thing about holiday chaos is that there's so many people and so much going on that sometimes the whole day will pass before you realize who's missing," she says, her voice tightening up as she looks down at their hands.

"Now I know why Derek always invited so many of us over on the holidays, at first I thought it was Meredith, you know not wanting to be alone on the holidays, but now after meeting your family, I think it was his way of surrounding himself with people so he wouldn't miss this," Arizona points out.

"When I lived in California, I always made excuses as to why I couldn't go home for the holidays. It wasn't even that I did anything else, I would just work or go sit on a beach somewhere. I just couldn't face my family after everything; the disappointment that I felt about myself, well it was reflected back to me in their eyes. So my solution was to just avoid them, to avoid their comments and stares; to avoid their concerns about what I was doing, or worse what I was drinking," she replies anxiously.

Arizona brushes her hair out of her eyes and Amelia realizes that she's crying.

"Hey I'm sorry. I didn't mean for that to be so heavy," Amelia says pulling her closer and kissing her hair. "I was actually just trying to explain why it was so important to me that we come here for this holiday," she says laughing a bit. "You see, I'm happy. My family hasn't seen me happy in a long time or maybe ever, so I wanted to share this happy me with them and you. I want to share you with them, because you, you are the reason that I'm happy."

"Amelia, I understand, I really understand. After Tim died, I avoided seeing my parents, I couldn't stand to see them grieving, it was like my grief was being reflected back at me. It got easier and now when I see them, I'm reminded of him in the best way. Those months that I was in DC and now having my parents in Seattle, have given Tim back to me in so many ways, ways I never imagined were possible," she explains tearfully.

"Well isn't this the sexiest conversation," Amelia exclaims sarcastically, wiping tears from her eyes.

Arizona reaches over, caresses her face she leans in and kisses her slowly, teasing her mouth with her tongue, until Amelia gasps. Then Arizona pulls back and trails kisses down her neck, stopping to suck on her pulse point until the brunette moans. "Mmm, let me show you how much I love you Amelia," she says, her voice thick with emotion.


End file.
